New Jersey is the Garden State; however, one mall seems to have dropped the “Garden” in favor of “nanny.”
Starting April 28th, Garden State Plaza Mall will require all patrons under 18 to be accompanied by a chaperone who is at least 21 years old on weekend nights in response to chaos fueled by the popular app TikTok. The chaperone rule kicks in after 5 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. Mall officials are saying they want to put a stop on outrageous youth behavior
“We’ve seen an increase in large crowds of teens, essentially juveniles. … The teens aren’t just enjoying the property in shopping, dining and entertainment,” Wesley Rebisz, the senior general manager at Garden State Plaza, told NorthJersey.com. “They’re being unruly, violating code of conduct, which can include running through the property in large groups, fighting and putting it on TikTok, basically disrupting business and making it uncomfortable for our everyday customers.”
Signage will appear inside and around the mall that indicates the new rules, Rebisz said.
“We have been reaching out to the local community, our local constituents within Paramus, within Bergen County; we’ve reached out to multiple school boards and surrounding counties, Essex, Passaic and Bergen counties,” he added.
According to officials, ID checks from police and security guards will become ubiquitous, as they’ll be stationed at the entrances and turn away those who don’t pass the check or refuse one.
“”We are rolling training that’s customer service-oriented for our security officers to stay with when they’re explaining the policy and the program. In the event something does try to begin to escalate a little bit, we have a police officer right there on top of it to de-escalate,” said Dan Cenedy, senior vice president of security operation at Garden State Plaza Mall’s parent company, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
For those denied entry, waiting zones where they can be picked up will be established near Entrance 1 by the movie theater, Entrance 10 on the property’s west side, and Entrance 15 by the food court.
Suffice to say, there has been a mixed reaction to this new preventative policy. Some see it as a deprivation of the youngsters’ freedom.
“Kids should deserve that freedom, you know what I mean?” shopper Ali Brightwell said. “I don’t think they need a chaperone. “I can see why they did it, but I mean, I don’t think it’s like really that … They shouldn’t enforce it.”
Others were more receptive to increased supervision.
“As a teacher, I feel like students need to, I mean, students, kids, everybody needs to be supervised,” shopper Jasmine Mark said to CBS News. “I think that when they’re here by themselves, they usually get in trouble, so I think that they should come with a parent.”
Garden State Plaza is the second-largest mall in all of New Jersey. And it is not the first shopping center to impose restrictions on unaccompanied minors.
A mall complex in Columbia, Maryland, instituted a similar set of rules last month citing similar teen disruption, the Baltimore Sun reported. Malls in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have followed suit. American Dream mall in East Rutherford also has a parental escort policy for children under age 16 after 4 PM.
