As some public places and event organizers let groups of teenagers know they are not welcome, principals at two Oak Lawn high schools want to create more opportunities for their students to gather and have fun outside school hours.
So Richards High School, 106th and Central Avenue, will open its doors from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday for students from its school and Oak Lawn Community High School to play volleyball, bean bag toss, basketball and board games, socialize and enjoy music and refreshments.
“There’s not that many places for kids to go and hang out agenda-less,” said Richards Principal Mike Jacobson.
“A lot of that is how society itself has changed,” Jacobson said, referring to proms, sports tournaments, homecoming and graduation activities canceled during the pandemic.
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But he also is disappointed when teenagers are barred en masse from places that are open to other members of the public, such as malls and outdoor music festivals.
“It seems like it’s a prevalent trend,” Jacobson said.
Oak Lawn’s annual Fall on the Green fest this weekend is being rebilled as the Fall Music Festival with 15 bands scheduled to play Friday through Sunday, next to the Oak Lawn Public Library at 95th Street and Raymond Avenue. But anyone under 21 must be accompanied by an adult.
“The kids were kind of bummed,” said Deborah Swanson, Richards’ activities facilitator.
The Oak Lawn Village Board in March decided to add the age restriction to the free event due to the unruly behavior of teenagers and “tweens” at the festival in prior years.
Teens and adolescents were reported fighting, throwing pumpkins and not respecting authorities, Oak Lawn village manager Tom Phelan said.
Jeana Lietz, principal of Oak Lawn Community High School, said she heard some of her students talking about that decision.
While some students are busy with sports and clubs, “that’s structured time,” Lietz said. “They don’t have a lot of places to go for unstructured time.”
In a similar vein, Chicago Ridge Mall, at 95th Street and Ridgeland Avenue, has had a youth supervision policy for the past several years.
It states people age 17 and under are “required to be accompanied by and remain with a parent or adult age 21 or older at all times on Fridays and Saturdays.” It was established “to ensure that all of our guests enjoy a safe, pleasant, and family friendly shopping environment,” the mall’s management states.
“I understand the motivation,” Jacobson said, but noted changing times from when he grew up.
“We were born and raised at the mall,” he said. “It was the ’80s.”
He said there were other places he and his friends frequented, such as the Oak Lawn Roller Rink.
When he attended Prairie Junior High, the school opened its gym to the students one night a month, he said.
“We ran around and sweated it out,” he recalled.
It annoys Jacobson when he hears today’s teenagers painted with a broad brush as disrespectful troublemakers, because the Richards students he knows are not that way, he said.
If kids are misbehaving more frequently in public, he said, the schools are called to action even more.
“I’m an educator. We need to provide monitored social situations to teach them how to behave,” he said. “I am just seeing fewer and fewer supervised activities where we can teach kids how to be their best selves and model interpersonal behavior.”
Jacobson said he wants to create opportunities for children to come out of their rooms and ideally make some new friends.
Tomiyah Nunn-Boone, a senior at Richards High School, agrees people her age need more places to socialize.
Loitering is not allowed at many places, she said, and getting to different places is not easy.
Teenagers do need more opportunities to gather for fun, said fellow senior and Student Council member Dorcas Bodunde.
“There definitely could be more, especially with strict parents who don’t let you go too far,” Bodunde said.
She will be at the open gym Saturday.
“I love volleyball,” Bodunde said.
Lina Shuibat, a Richards junior, did not know that the Oak Lawn festival this weekend did not allow any teenagers not accompanied by an adult and said the rule was unfortunate.
“Many places don’t want kids anywhere,” Shuibat said. “I’m a part of a lot of clubs, but on free days there are not a lot of places to go.”
The open gym sounds fun to Shuibat, and she said she plans to bring friends.
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Senior Mackenzie Tamer likes the open gym idea, but she does not lack places to gather with her friends. She spends time with them at each other’s homes, working out together at fitness clubs and going out to eat.
Isaac Vega, a Richards senior, said, there are fewer in person get-togethers because technology took over.
“Kids prefer to just be on their phones and text or call someone,” Vega said.
He agrees with Jacobson that teenagers need to have in-person interactions, not just online conversations.
“It helps to grow you social communication skills,” Vega said.
The mall not allowing unaccompanied teenagers on Friday and Saturday is not a great loss to him.
“Some students tend to go to the mall, but it’s not as popular anymore,” Vega said.
Teenagers don’t gather in parks, either, like they did years ago.
“Some parents don’t feel it’s safe for their kids to be there anymore,” he said.
He likes the idea of the school opening the doors of the gym, so the students have a safe place.
Richards will also host a Monster Mash on Halloween for its students with barbecue, hot cider and cocoa and games. And if only 20 or so students show up, that’s OK.
“As events happen, they always grow,” Swanson said.
“I do events for people who show up, not for the people who don’t,” Jacobson said.
And if those 20 kids enjoy themselves, he expects 40 may come the next time and 100 after that, as word spreads.
Only students who attend Richards or Oak Lawn high schools will be allowed to enter the gym.
Jacobson asked Oak Lawn High School, at 9400 Southwest Highway, to join Richards, because the school is nearby and the fall festival is the same day.
Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.