The Trouble with Teens
Illinois library rescinds harsh policy
Staff -- School Library Journal, 10/1/2000
How should a library deal with unruly teens? It's an everyday problem in many public libraries, but two years ago, the trustees of the Bedford Park (IL) Public Library felt things had gone too far.
Not only were a bunch of teens acting up in the library, but they'd broken tables and chairs, ripped a receiver off a pay phone, carved gang graffiti into solid oak doors, and even smashed the window of one librarian's home. According to Jim Janchenko, vice president of the board at the suburban Chicago library, officials knew who the teens were, but couldn't file charges because they couldn't catch the kids in the act.
So the library board decided to restrict kids under 16 from entering the library unless accompanied by an adult. Not only that, but the new policy applied only to kids who lived outside of Bedford Park. Why? Because, says Janchenko, library officials knew that the troublemakers came from neighboring Bridgeview. But last month, after protests from angry Bridgeview parents, criticism from the regional library system, and reams of bad press, the library board backed down from its policy, substituting a more lenient approach.
A contrite Janchenko says that in trying to protect the library and its staff and patrons, the board simply went too far. "We never stopped anyone from using the library," he says. "But were we restrictive? Yes. Were we too restrictive? Probably."
The controversial policy said that no child under 16 without a Bedford Park library card could be at the library after 3 p.m. without a parent or someone over 18. Basically, that meant
kids from Bridgeview. Though Bridgeview has its own library, residents from one section of the town live closer to the Bedford Park Public Library and have long used it as their own. This is not unusual in Illinois, which has a system of library reciprocity that lets cardholders from one town borrow books from surrounding towns' libraries.
While many libraries require young children, aged five or six, to be accompanied by parents, it's almost unheard of to have such a requirement for older children, says Leslie Edmonds Holt, director of youth services at the St. Louis Public Library and a contributor to an American Library Association publication called Unattended Children in the Public Library: A Resource Guide.
At first no one complained much about the Bedford Park policy. But then Joseph Kaput, a resident of Bridgeview and a member of its village board of trustees, got wind of the issue and rounded up local parents in protest. "You certainly don't want vandalism in the library," says Kaput, "but on the other hand, why should the good kids get punished for the kids who screw up?"
Thanks to those protests, Bedford Park last month adopted a new policy. This one lets out-of-town kids come to the library without adults as long as, first, a parent formally registers them, and second, they sign in on their arrival, giving their name, address and a telephone number for their parents. Then they must sign out when they leave.
Kaput and his Bridgeview neighbors are satisfied with the new policy. But not everyone agrees. Holt, for instance, says it concerns her that the policy seems to "rule out or identify for different treatment a particular group of people." And Louise McAulay, executive director of the Suburban Library System, to which Bedford Park belongs, told a local newspaper that the policy was still too restrictive. "To me it doesn't seem consistent with normal library policies," McAulay said.--A. G.
