[MR] Teenager abuse at Pennsic

[Neca Johnson]

Dear Lord Mungoe (and others),
 
I wanted to clarify a couple of points you made about teens at the bath house.  I speak not only as the parent of one of those teens, but also as someone who has been a public safety deputy at Pennsic for the past 3 years.
 
I'm concerned by the behavior of adults toward the teens as well, but for different reasons.  Yes, the merchant you mention acted like a jerk.  Had I seen her child unsupervised, I would have had a talk with Cindy about it - leaving children that age unsupervised is inexcusable.  But more than a merchant yelling at my kid, my bigger concern is the young adults (early 20s) that hang around with the much younger teens.  Why would a 25 year old boy want to hang around with a 14 year old girl?  
 
I think teens are as safe at Pennsic as they are at the mall - as long as they stay in a group.  It's when they split off that trouble can occur (and has).  The most serious incident this year was one of underage drinking.
 
But not all those teens are innocently hanging out and playing D&D.  We got 2 calls from Cindy Cooper this year - once when teens were jumping off the railings off the bath house, and once in the early morning hours when she went in to find the placed utterly, filthily trashed.  Really disgusting.  The public safety deputy on duty had to clean up that mess.  Would you really want to spend your vacation cleaning up someone else's trashed camp?  You can be sure that whatever was done with the items removed was done at Cindy's request, and was not some random whim.  Was it the right call?  I dunno. 
 
I'm not sure what the solution is - kids enjoy their free time hanging out with friends at Pennsic just like adults do.  I believe this is a case of a few bad apples spoiling it for the rest.  Teens clearly need a place to hang out with each other to socialize, but I think there is going to have to be increased visibility to prevent the vandalism and dangerous behavour that occurred this year.
 
Makai
 
 
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