Ohio Library Bars Unchaperoned After-Schoolers says an ALA article. The Wickliffe Public Library has banned visits from unchaperoned children under age 14 between 2:30 and 5:30 pm.
“We regret this course of action but must protect one of Wickliffe’s most valuable resources and its patrons,” officials advised parents and their school-age children by letter in early January.”
Yikes! When I was a children’s librarian in a very popular afterschool library, we started serious programming for teens and preteens. The crowds had been out of control for some time and the librarians were tired of kicking kids out, monitoring what was happening in the stacks, and intervening in wrestling matches, so I do know how it feels. We did a two prong approach. First we created very strict noise rules where kids would be warned several times, then asked to leave, then if they returned and did the same, their parents would be contacted and if that didn’t work, then they would be banned for a week. It worked really really well. In fact, we only had to ban one kid in the two years I was there while the rules were instituted. We also created a teen space in the meeting room, filled with books, Dungeons and Dragons games, a dedicated computer, and an adult. We could close the doors when they got too rowdy, but we could also do programming and really tell the teens that they were an important part of our community.
That is my problem with barring unchaperoned kids outright. What message are we as libraries sending these future taxpayers and what message are we giving to the parents of the teens? Doesn’t seem like a very positive one.