Related video above: Worlds of Fun institutes chaperone policy after massive fight involving 100 to 150 teens

Jennifer Sepulveda used to drop off her 14-year-old son, Jorden, at the local mall on a Friday or Saturday night, where he would catch a movie with his friends and then hang out afterward at the food court or elsewhere.

Not anymore.

Starting April 18, Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey — the second largest mall in the state — is requiring anyone under 18 years old to be accompanied by a chaperone at least 21 or older on Fridays and Saturdays after 5 p.m.

The move, according to the mall, follows "an increase in disruptive behavior by a small minority of younger visitors." That included a reported brawl in the food court last year and a fight in March that brought swarms of policemen to the center but ended up being a smaller altercation than initially reported.

Sepulveda of Passaic, New Jersey said she was fine with the new policy.

"On Friday and Saturdays, it's just been a madhouse," she said on a recent Friday night while shopping for Mother's Day gifts with Jorden and her 4-month-old daughter.

Jorden, on the other hand, was disappointed. Although he acknowledged the frequent mall fights, he lamented, "It was the main place to go and roam around and hang out with my friends, and I am sad."

Requiring an adult chaperone at malls, at least for certain times of the day, is not new. Mall of America, the nation's largest shopping mall, imposed a chaperone policy back in 1996 and has been increasingly tightening it as recently as 2020 when it mandated that teens be accompanied by adults after 3 p.m. daily.

But experts say Garden State Plaza joins a growing number of shopping centers, amusement parks and even a few restaurants that have implemented similar policies in the last few months ahead of the summer season. And they all cite increased incidents of bad behavior among teens as the reason, some of it inspired by social media like TikTok.

Even a Chik-fil-A franchise in southeast Pennsylvania caused a stir with its social media post earlier this year that announced its policy of banning kids under 16 without an adult chaperone, citing unruly behavior.

Violent crime arrests among youth had actually been on the decline for years, falling to a new low in 2020, according to the latest federal data. The number of youth homicide victims, however, increased by 30% from 2019 to 2020 –- the biggest one-year increase since at least 1980, the report found. In the years since 2020, authorities in some areas report a rise in crime among youth, including New York, Washington, D.C. and Colorado.

Many praise chaperone policies as a way to reduce disruptions to business and create a safer shopping environment. But some critics say the new parental controls hurt teens' independence and social development already curbed by pandemic-induced lockdowns.

Shopping malls, hanging out at amusement parks, grabbing a shake at a fast-food joint and watching a movie at a local theater with friends are still long considered the rites of passage to adulthood even as many teens shift to online games and social media. So the question is: What other public spaces can teens congregate to get away from their tablets and phones — as well as their parents?

"We have to allow spaces for young people to be independent and develop socially beyond the context of the virtual digital environment," said Jake Bjorseth, who runs Trendsetters, an agency helping retailers and brands understand and reach the Gen Z population.

Bjorseth noted the pandemic only further hampered social development for Gen Zers. He called the new chaperone measures too extreme and said they could backfire on malls and other traditional physical hangouts by helping to accelerate the shift to online that parents wanted to avoid.

Jorden said he only spends half his free time with his friends at Garden State Plaza and other shopping centers; the rest of the time he plays online games. He said the new policy at the mall will likely push him to another mall that has no chaperone policy — or even more online.

Marshal Cohen, the chief industry adviser at market research firm Circana, noted the policies aren't just about enhancing safety but adjusting to post-pandemic times, with teens markedly pulling back on purchases compared with other age groups.

Adults ages 55 and older spent 5% more in 2022 compared to the previous year, with the other age groups combined spending 2% lower, according to data from Circana. Meanwhile, spending by those in the 18- to 24-year-old category fell by 8%.

Cohen said the restrictions will help boost spending among adults who must now accompany kids but they will also likely reduce the number of trips by teens, so the overall financial impact is unclear.

At Garden State Plaza on a recent Friday night, the chaperone policy was clearly being enforced, with security guards stationed at each entrance and checking IDs of young shoppers they suspected were under 18 and who were not accompanied by an adult chaperone. Some were turned away. A cluster of policemen were also at the gates.

Meanwhile, several amusement parks with chaperone policies are generally requiring teens 15 years old or younger to be accompanied with adult chaperones after 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. every day. The largest group has been amusement park operator Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., which recently implemented adult chaperone policies for at least eight of its 13 parks including Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri, and King Dominion in Doswell, Virginia.

"Over the past two years, we have seen increasing incidents of unruly and inappropriate behavior across our industry and at other major entertainment venues," said Gary Rhodes, a spokesman for Cedar Fair in a statement. "We believe these changes will help ensure that our parks continue to provide a safe and positive environment."

At Worlds of Fun, for example, a fight involving more than 100 teenagers broke out during the park's opening weekend in early April.

Lauren Stansbury, 14, of Raytown, Missouri, was leaving Worlds of Fun, just before 4 p.m. on a recent Saturday with her cousin. Both are season pass holders.

"I don't really like it," she said, noting that it's hard to find a parent with time to chaperone. "I think that maybe they should just better their search type thing, like the way that they look for weapons and stuff."

Some businesses say the new rules have been effective.

The Mall in Columbia, in Columbia, Md., instituted a chaperone policy at the end of March after a rise in disruptive teen behavior over the past eight months, according to senior general manager Mary Williams. She said that the weekend scene has turned into a pleasant family atmosphere because of it.

Noah Peters, district manager at three Capital 8 Theater locations in Missouri and Illinois, said that the chaperone policy implemented in Missouri in October 2021 requires teens under 17 to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian after 6 p.m. And despite some outcry, it has been a "huge success," citing anywhere from an 80% to 90% reduction in disruptive episodes.

"The reality is that the amount of money we lose turning those without a chaperone away pales to the amount we were losing providing refunds night after night to frustrated guests whose movie going experience was marred by the noise and disruptions," Peters said.

According to a survey from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, as of 2020, African Americans accounted for 13% of the overall local TV news workforce.

One woman and accomplished journalist is paving the way for more young Black women to enter the industry she loves. Reporter Linnie Supall shares her story. 

"Over 43 years, I think I've done it all," Daphne Taylor says, walking down memory lane.

"Interviewing Oprah, covering Kamala Harris, I've covered President Obama four times."

She's celebrating more than four decades as an accomplished journalist, and her relentless fight to find success. 

"It hasn't been easy because I never made a lot of money, but I have always loved what I did," Taylor explains. 

From television to print and radio, Daphne Taylor's passion for journalism is multi-faceted — so much so, that she paved the way for others. 

"I came back to Riviera Beach and I started teaching broadcast journalism to at-risk teen girls," says Taylor.  

In 1998 Taylor launched a mentorship program introducing teenage girls to the world of broadcasting. 

"We called ourselves WGRL, where girls come first."

For nearly 10 years, WGRL cut attention across south Florida, traveling to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, to meet the latest stars and prominent leaders in town. 

"From Martin Luther King III, to Rosie O'Donnell, Alicia Keys (...) One of my former students recently told me that she would not be where she is today, had it not been for myself," Taylor recalls. 

"When you see you've made a difference, it makes a difference," she adds. 

Taylor is still writing front page headlines, acutely aware of the racial barriers that still remain. 

"Getting rid of racial injustice is going to still take more time, but we can get through it and we will get through it," Taylor says.

"All of us have a responsibility to do our best to make this world a better place. Never give up on your dream. It's never too late. Never too late."

This story was first reported by Linnie Supall and Natalie Allen at Newsy.

Two brothers in Massachusetts are being credited for saving a husband and wife, as well as the couple's historic home, from a house fire in Andover during this weekend's powerful nor'easter.Graham Dalton, 17, was driving home at about 3 p.m. Saturday with his 14-year-old brother, Ian, after the two spent hours shoveling snow for neighbors when they spotted what appeared to be flames leaping from a third-story window of a home."I pulled alongside the house and I was like: 'Hey, go knock on their door. Make sure everything is OK,'" Graham Dalton said."I was like: 'Hey, is there supposed to be a fire in the attic.' He was like: 'No.' And I was like: 'Alright, well, there is,'" Ian Dalton said.Graham called 911 while Ian helped get the couple, Pat and Fran O'Neil, out of the house as the second floor was rapidly filling up with smoke."We had no idea," Pat O'Neil said. "We were sitting down in the dining area playing Scrabble, and we had a fire in the fireplace."Andover firefighters were quickly able to contain the fire in the 130-year-old home, which appears to have started in a third-floor window fan."Fifteen minutes, you know, it's all the difference in the house being gone or saved — and they saved it," Fran O'Neil said."You've just got to go. It's not something you learn. It's not something you're taught, not something you train for, certainly, and you just gotta go," Graham Dalton said.On top of saving the O'Neils and their house, the Dalton brothers stayed with the couple to help them start cleaning up."They're just really nice young men and they did the right thing," Pat O'Neil said."That they went in and they acted appropriately and as a team, I'm very proud of that," said Julie Dalton, the boys' mother. "They were cool under pressure.""We have our battles, but sometimes we can be a great team," Graham Dalton said of his brother.Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield said seconds do count in a fire, especially when they break out in older homes. He said the Dalton brothers' quick action, and willingness to stop and help a neighbor, made all the difference.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —

A Los Lunas, New Mexico, father is trying to stay strong for his family after two of his children became critically ill due to the coronavirus.

Over the past few weeks, Jason Baca has called the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) his home.

Two of his sons, 17-year-old Jason Lee Baca and 13-year-old Ayden Baca, are currently fighting for their lives in the facility's pediatric intensive care unit.

It all started Aug. 13 after multiple people within the family of nine started to feel sick and reported similar symptoms, including a runny nose and a headache.

The feeling soon spread to the rest of the household. No one in the family had received a COVID-19 vaccine.

"We were in shock. I mean, within three days, it spread from one or two of us to everybody in the house," Baca said.

Family members were soon tested by health care professionals for COVID-19. Baca says most people came back positive, like his wife, Renee Baca.

"It wasn't a good feeling. I couldn't breathe. I had a really hard time breathing," Renee said.

While she eventually recovered after a two-week hospital stay, other members of her family did not. Her mother, Sandra Moya, was admitted and passed away.

Before her passing, Baca's son Jason Lee was diagnosed with pneumonia and transferred to UNMH from Presbyterian Hospital.

"Now knowing how bad that my sons got, and my wife got, and that everybody was sick, I just think it’s more serious and that people need to take it a lot more seriously then they have been taking it," Baca said.

Ayden was soon admitted into the pediatric ICU.

"They said that he had a 0% chance of making it. They wanted me to say bye to him, and I said, 'I’m not gonna say bye,'" Renee said.

For six weeks Jason Lee and Ayden have undergone surgeries and utilized ventilators due to heart and breathing complications.

Dr. Walter Dehority, an associate professor for the University of New Mexico's Department of Pediatrics, says parents should get their children vaccinated against COVID-19.

"We are finding more and more cases of severe COVID in children," Dr. Dehority said. "Kids can come in and look like they have a cold, and several days later they could be in the intensive care unit on life support. It can go from zero to 60 in a matter of days."

Baca says his sons are still in the pediatric ICU, but they are getting better.

However, he wishes his family got vaccinated to begin with.

"To see your kids in a bed, with that hose in their throat and not being able to breath on their own, that’s horrible," Baca said.

He now spends his time sharing his story with other families, and praying for a full recovery for his two sons.

"There’s so little that you can do when you’re here," Baca said. "I mean, prayers are one of the main things that you can do. I’ve been praying a lot."

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —

Shannon Williams experienced a tragedy this week, losing her teenaged son, William.

On Friday, Shannon Williams thanked the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, community for its support after the shooting inside Mount Tabor High School that took the life of her son, William, on Wednesday.

She shared the grief and heartache of losing her oldest son so suddenly.

She says Sept. 1 started with William waking up late for school and constantly replays that morning in her mind.

"I said, 'William, why you going? It's 10 o'clock?' He said, 'Mom I can still make it to second period.' I said, 'No don't go.' I kept all my kids at home... I felt it," Shannon recalled. "I kept all of them out and he wanted to go to school."

After learning about the shooting, she said she became worried when William didn't answer his phone.

"Hug your babies," Shannon said. "Hug them tight. Tell them you love them every chance you get."

About 100 people paid tribute to William Chavis Raynard Miller Jr. at a local park. Balloons were released in his memory and a prayer service was held.

The community also put on an event Saturday morning called "Guns Down, Lives Up" which addressed gun violence.

The owners of restaurants, amusement parks and retail shops, many of them desperate for workers, are sounding an unusual note of gratitude this summer:

Thank goodness for teenagers.

As the U.S. economy bounds back with unexpected speed from the pandemic recession and customer demand intensifies, high school-age kids are filling jobs that older workers can’t — or won’t.

The result is that teens who are willing to bus restaurant tables or serve as water-park lifeguards are commanding $15, $17 or more an hour, plus bonuses in some instances or money to help pay for school classes. The trend marks a shift from the period after the 2007-2009 Great Recession, when older workers often took such jobs and teens were sometimes squeezed out.

The time, an acute labor shortage, especially at restaurants, tourism and entertainment businesses, has made teenage workers highly popular again.

"We’re very thankful they are here,’" says Akash Kapoor, CEO of Curry Up Now. Fifty teenagers are working this summer at his five San Francisco-area Indian street food restaurants, up from only about a dozen last year. "We may not be open if they weren’t here. We need bodies."

The proportion of Americans ages 16-19 who are working is higher than it's been in years: In May, 33.2% of them had jobs, the highest such percentage since 2008. Though the figure dipped to 31.9% in June, the Labor Department reported Friday, that is still higher than it was before the pandemic devastated the economy last spring.

At the Cattivella Italian restaurant in Denver, for instance, Harry Hittle, 16, is earning up to $22.50 an hour, including tips, from his job clearing restaurant tables. He's used the windfall to buy gas and insurance for his car and has splurged on a road bike and an electric guitar.

"There's never been a better time to apply for a job if you're a teen," says Mathieu Stevenson, CEO of Snagajob, an online job site for hourly work.

Consider the findings of Neeta Fogg, Paul Harrington and Ishwar Khatiwada, researchers at Drexel University's Center for Labor Markets and Policy who issue an annual forecast for the teenage summer job market. This year, they predict, will be the best summer for teenage lifeguards, ice cream scoopers and sales clerks since 2008; 31.5% of 16- to 19-year-olds will have jobs.

Teenage employment had been on a long slide, leading many analysts to lament the end of summertime jobs that gave teens work experience and a chance to mingle with colleagues and customers from varying backgrounds.

In August 1978, 50% of teenagers were working, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Their employment rate hasn’t been that high since. The figure began a long slide in 2000 and fell especially steeply during the Great Recession. The eruption of coronavirus produced a new low: Only 26.3% of teens had jobs last summer, according to the Drexel researchers.

The long-term drop in teen employment has reflected both broad economic shifts and personal choices. The U.S. economy includes fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs — ready-made for teens — than it did in the 1970s and 1980s. And such jobs that do remain have been increasingly likely to be taken by older workers, many of them foreign born.

In addition, teens from affluent families, eager to secure admission to top universities, have for years chosen summer academic programs over jobs or have pursued ambitious volunteer work in hopes of distinguishing their applications for college. Others have spent their summers playing competitive sports.

This summer, things are rather different. After collapsing last spring, the economy has rebounded much faster than expected. Restaurants, bars, retail shops and amusement parks have been overwhelmed by pent-up demand from consumers who had mostly hunkered down for a year or more.

Now, those businesses need employees to handle the influx and are scrambling to find enough. The vaccine rollout was just starting in April and May, when employers typically start hiring for summer. Some of these businesses delayed their hiring decisions, unsure whether or when the economy would fully reopen.

Foreign workers, brought in on J-1 work-and-study visas, typically filled many such summer jobs. But President Donald Trump suspended those visas as a coronavirus precaution, and the number of U.S.-issued J-1 visas tumbled 69% in the fiscal 2020 year — to 108,510, from 353,279 the year before.

In past years, for example, foreigners visiting the U.S. on visas took filled 180 summer jobs at Big Kahuna's water park in Destin, Florida. Last year, there were just three. This year, eight. Desperate to attract local teens, Big Kahuna's, which is owned by Boomers Parks, is now paying $12 an hour, up from less than $10 an hour in past years.

Compounding the labor squeeze, many older Americans have been slow to respond to a record number of job openings. Some have lingering health concerns or trouble arranging or affording child care at a time when schools are transitioning from remote to in-person learning. Other adults may have been discouraged from seeking work because of generous federal unemployment benefits, though many states have dropped these benefits, and they will end nationwide on Sept. 6.

So businesses are offering signing bonuses and whatever else they can to hire teens in a hurry.

Wendy's, which relies on teens to salt fries and ring up orders, added a way for applicants to apply for a job through their smartphones. Applicants are screened using artificial intelligence, which gets them to an interview faster than if they uploaded a resume. The idea is to hire them before another employer can.

"Speed is critical," said Randy Pianin, CEO of JAE Restaurant Group, a franchisee that owns 220 Wendy’s locations. As a perk, JAE is offering workers a way to get hold of some of their pay the day after they earn it, Pianin said, instead of having to wait two weeks for a paycheck.

Boomers Parks has raised pay at the eight amusement parks it owns and is offering bonuses of up to $50 a week for some teen workers who stay through the summer, CEO Tim Murphy said. With fewer people seemingly willing to take the jobs, Murphy said, competition for workers is fierce.

At its Sahara Sam's water park in West Berlin, New Jersey, the company lowered its minimum working age to 15 from 16 to try to recruit a larger pool of candidates.

Johnathon Miller thought he would need to wait until August, when he turned 16, to start working. But when he heard about a lowered age limit at Sahara Sam’s, he applied — and got the job. He will soon be a lifeguard, watching over the lazy river for $15 an hour, a couple of bucks more an hour than Sahara Sam’s used to pay.

"I’m looking forward to working,” said Miller, who lives in Woolwich Township, New Jersey — so much so that he got a friend interested, too: "He was like, 'Whoa, they are hiring at (age) 15?'"

At Curry Up Now, the restaurant pays $2 an hour above the minimum wage, which is $15 or more an hour, depending on the Bay Area location. The chain is also offering a fund for teens to pay for classes or books, as well as free Zoom classes on how to manage money.

Kapoor concedes that young hires require restaurant training and might not stick around for long. But there are advantages to having teens on staff. They are typically inclined to persuade their friends to work or eat there, giving Curry Up Now a stream of future workers and customers. And they have updated the restaurant’s music, adding more songs from the '80s and '90s as well as tunes from India and the Middle East.

All that said, the revival of teen employment might not last. The pre-pandemic trend toward fewer young workers at restaurants and entertainment venues could reassert itself if the economy's labor shortages are eventually resolved.

Still, Harrington, director of Drexel’s labor markets center, notes that "employers have moved down the labor queue as the labor supply of adults has become more constrained."

If the economic recovery continues to reduce unemployment, and if federal policymakers continue to restrict the influx of low-skilled foreign workers, "then the chances for sustained growth in teen employment rates are good," Harrington said.

___

Pisani reported from New York. AP writer Patty Nieberg contributed to this report from Denver.

CINCINNATI —

As investigators look into questions about what led to a mass shooting in Smale Park, new crime cameras were going up Tuesday that could have provided some of those answers.

The shooting rang out just after Fourth of July fireworks on Sunday. Five teenagers were hit, two were killed.

Police said Milo Watson, 16 and Dexter Wright Jr., 19 were apparently trying to kill each other and both succeeded.

Some details about what happened are still unclear. Police have not said who they believe pulled a weapon first or what happened to the guns after the shooting.

“We have not recovered any firearms,” said Cincinnati police Chief Eliot Isaac.

There were no crime cameras in the area where the shooting began to help sort out the details until now.

Crews are putting up the first two of 10 new cameras planned for Smale Park.

The plan to put the cameras in the park has been the works since problems started to show up on police radar about a year ago.

The cameras will be part of the Real Time Crime camera network of more than 200 cameras across the city. The cameras are monitored and recorded by Cincinnati Police 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The two newest cameras are going up in the area where the shooting began.

Park workers said the cameras were supposed to go up last Thursday, but were delayed by weather.

MASON, Ohio — Kings Island closed 30 minutes early Saturday evening due to "unruly behavior and altercations" involving teenagers, park officials confirmed Sunday morning.

The Mason Police Department said officers responded to reports of "unruly guests primarily juveniles" inside the park and in the parking lot. No arrests were made Saturday, police said.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol also responded to the scene, and an OSHP spokesperson confirmed to WCPO there were multiple fights inside the park before a bigger altercation in the parking lot Saturday evening.

“The safety of our guests and associates is always our top priority," read a statement from Kings Island sent to WCPO Sunday morning. "On Saturday, the decision was made to close the park 30 minutes early due to unruly behavior and altercations involving a number of teenagers. This behavior did not align with our park’s values, and was not the experience we want any guest to have while visiting Kings Island."

Shan Powell posted a video of one of the fights inside the park that has more than 3,000 shares.
"It is an injustice that the staff is required to babysit some of these children," Powell told WCPO. "They're dropped off at the drop off right in front of the park and then left for hours at a time unsupervised."

Powell said it's going to take the community as a whole to fix the problem, not new park rules.

"I think the park should very much remain open, especially after the pandemic, for all ages," he said. "I'm not a big person for new rules, but I am a person of unity and unified responsibility. It's not going to fall on the staff alone to remedy this -- this is a community place."