BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — The sign on the door is making a new policy at Washington Park mall in Bartlesville clear: minors under 16 are not allowed inside without a parent, guardian or teacher with them.
“This isn’t a place for them to run around, this is a place of business,” said Michelle Harris, General Manager. “They were disrupting the tenants, disrupting the customers, and I just kept getting more feedback from people asking ‘what are we going to do?’”
Harris said the policy was implemented after several incidents of theft, vandalism and unruly behavior. Some teenagers were caught on video messing with the Veterans memorial inside the mall. They tried to break into one of the display cases and cracked it. They were also caught kicking the memorial and etching into the Plexiglass.
“That is very sacred to us,” Harris said. “For them to do that showed they had no respect.”
Ashlynn Richey owns Ashlynn’s Boutique and said her employees felt uncomfortable and harassed by the teens.
“There is no one that wants to see this mall thrive and flourish more than we do, but as a small business owner, we want to feel safe and we want our employees to feel safe,” said Richey. “We are trying to provide a fun atmosphere for customers and to have this policy in place is a good idea. We all need some guidance sometimes.”
Harris said they hope to reverse the policy down the road, but the teen crowd will need to earn their trust back.
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