On opening day in March, bands of teens — perhaps 600 or so — roamed Six Flags Over Georgia, engaging in brawls, running amok and startling paying customers.
Ultimately, a 15-year-old was wounded outside the park in what police called an exchange of gunfire.
This comes after disturbances last year and now the popular park is calling for kids 15 and younger to have adult chaperones after 4 p.m.
The park is not saying what caused the decision now. It did note, in a statement, that it is headed into its busiest time of year. It makes sense that Six Flags does not want potential parkgoers to stay away for fear of being stampeded.
In doing so, Six Flags is enacting a policy increasing employed by malls tired of rowdy behavior. In recent years, other venues like Atlantic Station (in 2022) and Lenox Square (2021) have implemented the so-called “youth supervision programs,” with those two also coming after shootings.
Malls have always been a magnet for teens — places to wander, socialize and even shop. And kids sometimes do annoying stuff that adults, and mall-keepers, just don’t like.
But following the COVID lockdowns, it seems many people just forgot how to behave in public. Add to that social media, which can advertise a happening and you can generate a throng of folks in no time.
Throw in the seeming increase in the number of young teens involved in shootings and you’re going to see a lock-it-down mentality.
Lenox Square’s policy came into effect in 2021 after two 15-year-olds held a security guard at gunpoint demanding keys to the mall. Apparently frustrated by his refusal, one teen, a girl, shot him point blank as nearby diners watched — and recorded.
Ken Allen, a retired Atlanta detective, ran the mall’s off-duty cop security program at the time. He says the metal detectors and chaperone program that were put into place made a “significant change” in curtailing unwanted behavior.
“In the mall, you just had kids hanging out,” Allen said. “They weren’t shopping. They were browsing and carousing. You know, being teenagers. Some were disruptive and made it uncomfortable for shoppers.”
Security guards and off-duty cops (the mall spent $1 million a year on them) were able to ask roaming teens “Where’s your adult?” If one wasn’t around, then Scram!
Lenox got lots of attention on social media, especially Tik Tok challenges and rappers posting they were at the mall, he said. Soon, it became a phenomenon.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
If you post there’s a celebrity afoot, or a fight’s going to happen, you’re going to get a social media sensation. And a real life problem.
Last year, Douglasville Police Chief Gary Sparks warned parents and their kids that he wasn’t going to put up with foolishness at Arbor Place mall (which also has a teen curfew).
In 2022, the mall’s theater discounted tickets and ended up with a melee that led to the arrest of 19 juveniles and one adult.
“Parents don’t seem to understand the times we are living in,” Sparks said in a letter posted on Facebook. “We must understand that the biggest and most powerful word in our vocabulary is NO. Learn to tell your kids ‘no.’”
“When they get with their friends, their decision-making process is null and void,” Sparks told me this week. “If the kids aren’t obeying at home, why drop them off somewhere else?”
“Some (parents) didn’t want to hear it, but I had to tell them the truth,” he said. “If the parents don’t (discipline them) then I have to deal with it on the street.”
I noted that teens have hung around malls since they were first built. He agreed, but added: “The mentality is different. They see so much on social media. Times are faster for these kids. We need parents to help slow them down.”
Michael Owens, mayor of the newly created city of Mableton, has been working with local authorities and Six Flags officials since this year’s troubles. He did not know why Six Flags put the chaperone policy in place now but thinks they want it up and running for this fall’s Fright Fest. That popular weekslong event could get even more frightening by mass misbehavior.
“When these places become destination places to settle arguments or to have fights, then they become a problem and that just can’t be,” he told me. There were social media posts saying that there would be brawls at Six Flags.
“I don’t want to be ‘These kids get together and cause trouble,’” said Owens, noting that Six Flags is one of the largest teen employers in the state.
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Credit: Rosana Hughes
Credit: Rosana Hughes
But Owens has been trying to create an entertainment district with hotels and restaurants near Six Flags, and youngster-driven drama just isn’t going to cut it.
Commerce always wins out.
Jake Bjorseth, who runs trndsttrs, a Gen Z advertising company, called such a sweeping policy “shortsighted.” He said malls can deal with potential violence by enhanced security, but blanket policies to exclude a demographic group can backfire.
“You’re not actually remedying the problem; you’re eliminating a potential customer base,” he said. “There can be a long-term downstream effect.”
I guess such measures can cascade two ways.
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