Aurora Mall Bans Teens On Friday, Saturday Nights

Teens Only Allowed In After 5 P.M. If With Parent, Guardian

Posted: 08/26/2005
Last Updated: 2828 days ago

After 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, the Aurora Mall will be like an R-rated movie with no one under 17 years old allowed inside without a parent or guardian.

The restrictions announced Thursday go into effect Sept. 9 and are designed to create a friendly, family oriented environment by preventing groups of teenagers inside the mall from intimidating other shoppers, said mall spokeswoman Alisa Sill.

At least 30 malls across the country, including the Mall of America in Minneapolis, have similar restrictions, she said.

Aurora Mall is owned by Indianapolis-based Simon Malls.

Sill said the restrictions are unrelated to a triple shooting in June that left one person dead inside the mall.

Simon Properties has been renovating the mall, bringing in more upscale shops, and even employed "'Mall Parents" -- a program where mothers and fathers patrol the shopping center to keep an eye on kids who were drawn to the shopping center.

The mall received some heat last year when 7NEWS Investigators caught a leasing agent making racially explosive statements in a recorded telephone conversation.

During a conversation with a mall tenant, the leasing agent had said, "We want to reduce the negative, um, aspects of the center -- one of them is the young, black customer."

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