Teens who hang out at a Tulsa shopping mall better make new weekend plans

Tulsa's Promenade Mall will announce today, minors, under the age of 18, cannot be at the mall on weekend nights after 6 PM without a parent. <br/><br/>Some parents are upset on how their kids were

Tuesday, February 1st 2005, 6:13 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa's Promenade Mall will announce today, minors, under the age of 18, cannot be at the mall on weekend nights after 6 PM without a parent.

Some parents are upset on how their kids were alerted to the new rule. Promenade Mall says it started the curfew to make the shopping experience pleasant for everyone. But this past weekend, Jessica Neely and Crystal Stark found out about the curfew the hard way. The friends went to a Saturday night movie. They planned on shopping for an hour afterwards until their parents picked them up at 7 PM, but a mall security guard told them to leave.

The girls say they were forced to wait in a parking lot, scared and not sure what to do. They ended up walking to a nearby McDonalds to wait. Jessicaâ€™s mom Pam Neeley: "I understand they do have problems and if they want to get rid of the problem kids, good, they need to because that will make us feel safer for our kids, but, they market to teens. 80% of their stores market to teens. If they want to teen money, they need to take care of the safety of the teens they attract."

The mall says it plans to let parents know about the rules by putting up big signs. The mall will also allow teens to call their parents and wait in a well-lit, centralized area outside the movie theatre entrance.

The mall says the waiting area will have plenty of safety officers.