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I am not sure if you guys have been keeping up with all the Plaza hub-bub going on lately, but if you haven’t, click here to read about it.
The Long-Story-Short version of this story is that the Country Club Plaza has a problem with unsupervised kids hanging around. By unsupervised, I mean kids as young as 11 being dropped off to “hangout” at the Plaza while their parents go and do whatever.
Mayor James was quoted as saying, “We have a youth problem on the Plaza, but first and foremost we have a parent problem.” I must say, I completely agree with Mayor James on this problem.
Where the heck are the parents?
I have mentioned many times that I have a retail alter ego and I see this problem MANY, MANY TIMES. Retail stores are not babysitters. We are not there to protect and entertain your child. We are there to assist you if you need help with your retail purchase, not to be your babysitter. We are not staffed/trained/designed to do that. As I have mentioned, we have had kids in our store as young as 9 dropped off at our store for hours. (BTW, if I even suspect that in our store, I call the police ASAP. You are warned.)
So again I ask, where is the parental responsibility here?
This question can answer almost every big-ticket youth problem we have today. Failing schools? Check. Almost every single education report ever published tells us that there is a direct link between parental support and childhood test scores. I know I struggled with school until I was in the 8th grade and my parents begged and bartered to get me the additional tutoring I needed until it all clicked for me. It reminds me that I need to thank them again for their dedication and determination to keep me from falling behind in school.
I think back to when I was 13 and what I did. Well, I had a “job” in the summer. I was a Councilor in Training at my local YMCA. (I wasn’t paid for this, but on the flip side I was able to attend camp for no cost.) Where I grew up, the YMCA was one of the only safe havens for kids my age. I grew up in the East Aurora School District and if you watch ANY gang documentary about Chicago, they will talk about East Aurora and the Latin Kings who ruled the district. The YMCA had a great standing in our community and the gangs knew it was considered “off-limits.”
I credit the YMCA to keeping many of the kids I hung out with out of gangs. Our YMCA had a leadership program that many of my friends were in. It was a constructive way to spend my summers and latch-key hours after school. Both of my parents worked long hours so the Y became a second home to my sister, brother and I. To stay in the program, you had to do so many hours of community service by teaching classes or giving back to the community. Graduates of this program were offered college scholarships and participants were mentored by staff and volunteers.
Why do I bring this up? I was only active in the YMCA because my parents enrolled me and encouraged me to get involved and give back to my community. (Well, that and my mom threatened to kill me if she heard of me skipping out when I was supposed to be teaching a class. She wasn’t kidding either…..) I could have easily slipped into a gang. I had lots of friend who went down that path and never found their way back.
The City has lots of youth programs that are similar to the YMCA I graduated from. KC has youth advocacy programs, Night Hoops and Night Kicks; but to be honest, without parents becoming involved in their kid’s lives, I am not sure these programs will accomplish their goal of creating a safe haven for Kansas City youth.
The only real solution is for parents to take responsibility and get involved.
I’ll get off my soap box now and I’m sure I will have some… comments…. to this post.
Did you know that The Village Shops in Prairie Village also have an after school unsupervised kid problem? A little higher socioeconomic class & no guns that I'm aware of, but still an issue. Funny that no one publishes this fact.I agree that the situation needs to be rectified; however, a 9:00 curfew seems early to me for all teens. This summer I have observed many orderly teens at yogurt shops; restaurants; and even parks--should the 16-19 year olds also be punished? Personally I am not planning to have my teen driving to the Plaza or Westport alone or with friends until she is at least a senior in high school; however, teens need to also be allowed the chance to be independent. Interesting we had the same issue in the 80s--we called it "cruising" and we drove down the strip and parked in empty lots looking "mature" and chatted up the "boys". No guns mostly drinking and some unplanned pregnancies.I think it is ironic that this happened about the same time the news was showing a piece about the situation and the major was saying he didn't think a 9pm crufew was necessary. I think it is up to the parents to give there kids something to do and not drop them off anywhere for hours. I can't imagine letting my 15 yr old go to a movie at AMC in Leawood at Town Center and letting him and his friends hang out for several hours after the movie. It is not up to the city to figure out ways for our kids to spend their time.
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