Overheard an interesting conversation in Starbucks today. Managers of the store were meeting with a representative of a security firm. The conversation was about teenagers loitering around the store. The managers seemed eager to hire the security company to drive away unwanted and rowdy teenagers.
The Starbucks is in a fairly upscale area of Loudoun County, Va., but far from the elite areas like Great Falls and McLean, Va., and a world apart from the crime-ridden sections of D.C. However, the security rep said middle and high-end suburban areas are some of his worse nightmares in terms of dealing with teenagers. In "rougher" locales, the security guy said he can simply chase kids away and they generally don't come back. In the cookie-cutter suburbs, with limited places to hang out, teenagers tend to be more argumentative and even hostile towards authority. They gather in packs and act more boldly in terms of seeking "revenge," the security guy said.
"Even if we chase them away, they often will come back and slash tires or paint graffiti," said the security rep. We had a massive tire-slashing incident in our neighborhood last year, so this resonated with me.
There was also talk about how upper-middle class suburban kids have parents who are quick to sue anyone who tries to curtail their kids' awful behaviors. Teachers have been walking that line for years. I think this is a generational change. When I was young, I was not given the benefit of the doubt if a neighbor or teacher complained to my parents about my behavior.
I also recall a public service announcement on television when I was growing up. It said, "It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" How would parents answer that today? I doubt some parents know where their kids are at any time of day.
Now, if I can digress a second. I understand teenage rage and expression to some degree. I wasn't exactly a perfect kid myself. But there appears to me to be something wrong with kids today. For instance, in my day when the local hoodlum decided to hot rod his car, he rebuilt the engine, improved the driving performance and spent countless hours doing back-breaking work to have his car drive (or race) as well as it sounded. Nowadays, any idiot with a few bucks and a wrench can alter his muffler so that the car sounds hot-rodded, yet it's still the same piece of crap it was before the tailpiece was added on. Now tell me, who had more initiative, the kid 40 years ago who spent months re-engineering his car or the jerk who made his muffler noisier to impress his friends?
Loudoun County is a ticking time bomb. My wife and I see it on our street almost every day. Kids and more kids, largely unsupervised when young and totally on their own when older. One teen was shot to death right across from the new Donald Trump Golf Course, about a mile from my house over the summer. He was at a house party, presumably with no parental supervision. And these kids are supposedly among the best and the brightest in a well-educated area where most high school grads go to college.
Neighbors are often scared to say anything to unruly kids. Some won't even call the cops or social services because they are so intimidated by these punks. I am unsure if one youngster on our block even has parents or a guardian living with him full time, but I am determined to find out soon because the situation is deteriorating. His house has become a gathering place for a whole host of kids who, for lack of a better description, essentially look like they are runaways living on the streets.
The county has one of the highest per capita rates of multiple-children families in the nation. This is a big problem. Bordering on freakish, really. Pregnant mothers with three kids in tow is not an unusual sight around Sterling and Ashburn, Va. Parents keep breeding like mad because of the good schools, hospitals and other amenities. But what these working parents don't seem to understand is that the suburbs can often be just as dangerous for teenagers as the inner cities, particularly when parents turn their kids over to institutions to raise, or worse, let them roam anywhere and everywhere on their own. Shopping center security companies in particular are doing well because of the influx of kids in the region.
Loudoun is becoming a teenage wasteland. Anything so massively out of balance usually is a bad thing. The kids who were cute and cuddly during the county's extreme growth spurt a few years ago are now teenagers without much to do. The parents are working around the clock to afford the big houses while dumping their problems on the rest of us who are simply trying to go about our business without getting hit by a skateboard or having to elbow our way through a pack of teens loitering in front of the coffee shop.
Parents in Loudoun need to take responsibility for their kids. The quality of life here is only as good as the people. Neighbors must also speak up when they see kids hanging from street signs or throwing rocks at cars. Unfortunately, correcting these spoiled brats will often draw a nasty response. Maybe that's the way teenagers have always been, but it still doesn't mean adults don't have the right to speak up.
Shopping centers and store owners also have a responsibility to their patrons. If the managers at Bloom (grocery store) won't pay for security, then I will take my business to Safeway, Giant or Harris Teeter. I was glad to see that the Starbucks that I usually go to is finally trying to do something about a growing problem.
I hope parents, police and others in the county begin to recognize that we have a problem that isn't going to go away by ignoring it. Security firms and other forms of policing can't replace good parenting, but with the current teenage explosion in Loudoun County, more security at public places is probably not a bad idea.
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