Mega-Mall Launches Youth-Escort Rules

A teenage rite of passage--hanging out at the mall on weekend nights--ended when the Mall of America began enforcing a curfew for kids under 16. Officials at the nation’s biggest shopping and entertainment complex hope to cut down on rowdy behavior by requiring youngsters to be accompanied by someone 21 or older after 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The Twin Cities chapter of Refuse and Resist gathered at the mall Friday evening to protest what it called “the criminalization of youth and the racism demonstrated” by the curfew. “The policy is an attack on youth and minorities,” said Mark Jefferson, who was handing out T-shirts with anti-mall slogans.