Park Plaza in Little Rock is preparing to introduce a policy that will require adult supervision of minors visiting the mall after 5 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays beginning April 7.
A spokesman for the mall confirmed Wednesday plans to implement a youth-escort policy but declined to provide details because a formal announcement about it has not been made.
A flier with numerous details about the policy has been circulating on social media, however.
The flier says that mall visitors under age 18 will have to be accompanied by a parent or guardian who is age 21 or older after 5 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays or any other time that the escort policy is in effect.
Security officers will monitor mall entrances, and anyone appearing to be under age 18 on those nights may be asked to show valid identification. Such identification will include driver's licenses, state or military identification cards, passports or visas.
A parent who is 21 or older will be allowed to escort all of that parent's children. A parent or guardian 21 or older will be allowed to escort up to three minors if at least one of the youths is the parent's or guardian's child.
The policy will not apply to minors who work at the mall during those nights. But proof of their work status will be required, and minors who are employees must go directly to their places of employment and leave after their shifts if that's after 5 p.m.
The youth-escort policy will be posted at all of the mall's entrances, according to the flier.
Individuals who violate the policy will be asked to leave the property.
Park Plaza's policy will go into effect just a few months after Little Rock police had to remove dozens of teenagers from the mall on Dec. 26 after a police spokesman said they were "causing fear." Police removed 75 to 100 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 that evening. No arrests were made.
Other malls around the country also had youth altercations the day after Christmas, typically one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Some of those led to multiple arrests.
Youth-escort policies are not uncommon in malls across the country.
The Mall of America outside Minneapolis requires youths under age 16 to be accompanied by an adult from 4 p.m. until closing time on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the mall's website. Beachwood Place, in a suburb of Cleveland, implemented a similar policy in early January, requiring that mall visitors under age 17 be accompanied by a supervising adult after 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Park Plaza isn't the first mall in Arkansas to institute a policy on supervising youths.
Wayne Hall, a manager at The Pines in Pine Bluff, said that mall had a similar policy for about six months last year. The policy called for youths 17 and under to be chaperoned by parents or guardians after 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. However, the rule was lifted after the mall received numerous complaints.
"The complaints came from the parents that actually wanted to just drop their children off," Hall said. "They said, 'The kids have nothing to do in this town and now they can't even come to the mall.'"
Business on 03/09/2017