TEENS' ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS LIMITED

When I was a teen-ager, I faced the same problems many teens face today.
The problem is how to occupy free time on Friday and Saturday nights. Many
problems can come about when teen-agers have nowhere to go and no place to
socialize with friends. Some types of problems that occur when teens have
no place to socialize is mischievous behavior, hanging around in public
parking lots and doing drugs.

Some types of mischievous behavior can occur out of boredom. Teen-agers
begin to hang around in businesses, schools, churches, and public parking
lots. Many businesses have no choice, but to call the police to make teens
leave their business, so the business does not lose potential customers.
Most of the time when teen-agers gather in public parking lots, they play
loud music that can be annoying or disturbing to paying customers and cause
problems.

One problem we notice with teen-agers is they are bored, therefore the
teens may go around hitting mailboxes, toilet papering trees and turning on
faucets or sprinklers in people's yards as a form of entertainment. Another
problem can occur when teens have no place to go for entertainment is to
turn to drugs as a form of entertainment.

This has been an on going problem for at least 10 years or more and the
issue of teens having no place to go still remains a problem today. One
solution may be to have a location supervised by adults where teen-agers
can meet and socialize with friends. As an alternative, teens could listen
to music, shoot pool, play video games and purchase refreshments. Perhaps
this solution would give our teens a chance to have fun in a safe
environment without doing drugs, bothering business owners or destroying
people's property.

MELISSA FONTENOT

Elton