teenagers banned from the mall?

The Christiana Mall in Delaware is soon going to restrict the entry of teenagers into their mall. They will be IDing all kids at the doors, and if you're under 18 the only way you'll be let in is if you're accompanied by a parent. Those who are over 18 will get wristbands which will allow them to shop and hang out. This is happening because a lot of fights (fist fights and food fights, apparently) have been happening all too frequently there. At first, it didn't seem like such a bad idea. Adults want to feel comfortable to shop and enjoy the mall without witnessing two teenage girls beat the crap out of each other, or getting fries thrown at their heads. But then I got to thinking (and it's never a good thing when I get to thinking) what if this had happened when I was still 14 or 15. I have a pretty awful memory, but I'm fairly certain we hung out at the mall a lot. What else was there to do besides mall, movies, and bowling/mini golf? Plus, if you ban the mall, the fighting kids will still fight somewhere, but it will probably be somewhere more dangerous. I think it's a little silly and a tad overkill. It seems like you could just take the all security personal at the doors IDing kids and just have them patrol the mall more frequently, the problem would be solved without having to resort to such a ban. But hey, what do I know?

Actually, what I do know is how sad I would have been if I never got a chance to own all the lovely things I bought at the mall during my unsupervised teenage years:

This includes but is certainly not limited to: flannel shirts (not simply plaid, FLANNEL), giant JNCO's, surfer shirts and skater shoes (and surprisingly,  I was neither), rainbow belts, colorful tube socks, GLITTER in all its forms, Doc's, overalls WITH homemade patches, tiny little backpacks, safety pin earrings (or moons, or stars, or scissors, or mushrooms, or turtles...), and anything from LimitedToo I could get my hands on. 

And this doesn't even include not being able to go to buy a new CD, hit up Chick-Fil-A, or get one of those cute little picture key chains with all your friends.... Boy, we are living in harsh times....

Peace and looking back,

TheFashionHead