I'm no fan of Safeway but this is not really about Safeway's (many) shortcomings. And this is not about not having a 'teen center'. This is about out of control kids who have no respect for adults and think they can get away with theft and intimidation. Maybe if we start fining and otherwise holding their parents accountable, it'll put the onus of them to do a better parenting job. Coming on the heels of Dale Dougherty's excellent piece on academic underachievement in SoCo, it's clear there is a big problem with a lot of 'our' kids, who will have a rude awakening when they hit the competitive work world....without literacy, numeracy, manners, and good judgement.
Safeway should have security cameras installed. I find the delivery driver more credible but not having been there I cannot pass judgement on these students. Anyone who goes to this Safeway has seen the gatherings. None have ever threatened me, but I am a 6’1 and, as a man, may be less likely to be harassed.
They may be “kids” to some people, like the parent quoted in the article suggests, but they are fully capable of inflicting harm. It seems likely that most of these students were so-called “good” kids that were intimidated by one or more of the so-called “bad” ones into not being totally honest about what transpired. We all knew about this in high school, didn’t we? It’s nothing new.
It seems to me the school administration/district has some responsibility to maintain some sort of oversight on the students off campus. Saying it happened after school hours is not a responsible response. The merger of two campuses has resulted in traffic congestion and, it would seem, an escalation of issues at Safeway which has become a drop off and pickup site. I realize this has been a problem for many years. How about administrator stepping up to plate with some solutions rather than passing the buck?
Great article Laura. Not an easy solution to this. I really feel for the delivery driver. I'm glad she chose to work in Santa Rosa. Maybe the deliver service could assign a hulky person to deal with the rowdy teenagers at the Sebastopol site. I also think Safeway should do more to monitor the situation. Maybe Safeway could post a "no loitering" sign outside--kids could still shop but then have to congregate elsewhere. Personally I don't shop at Safeway during the hours that the kids are hanging out. Does Safeway realize that they're loosing business because of the teenagers presence? If it's a drop off/pick up site, then it could be elsewhere on the property--not right at the entrance/exit.
Like your suggestion and I would take a step farther. It's a problem created by the school. Give the school administrator the right and job of enforcing the no loitering at Safeway. Weren't we sold the teen center as the place for the kids to hangout. Direct them there. Car pickup there too.
Something to consider: Analy is no longer a small local school. Less we forget, the school board chose to prioritize county-wide open enrollment over being a basic school district that keeps its property taxes to fund exceptional programs for local kids. Instead of maximizing that revenue, the board has increased enrollment by drawing more than 30 per cent of students now at Analy from other schools as inter-district transfers. (1100 students in 2018 and 1530 students today) The aim was better educating every student including those farthest from opportunity. Analy is now a REGIONAL facility and it does excellent work. But this financial operating strategy, in actuality definitely impacts local residents and business in a huge variety of ways.
As someone who didn’t grow up here, I mostly love living in California, but this sort of thing makes me roll my eyes. Some kids here grow up WAY too entitled, and the result is this: harassing someone who’s just trying to do their (difficult, low-paying) job, then trying to play the victim because (gasp) she filmed them. They wouldn’t behave this way if anyone had taught them basic respect.
Also, it feels like schools here either refuse to enforce meaningful discipline or aren’t permitted to do so. At my daughter’s kindergarten, they are not even allowed to send home kids with lice, with the result that there have been multiple lice outbreaks throughout the school year, and tired parents have had to bear the burden of failed public health policy. What are we even doing here?
Surely being part of a community entails respecting some basic rules, like “don’t come to school with lice” or “don’t harass old ladies in the Safeway parking lot.” When individual “rights” (more like feelings) are put above all else, the result is the breakdown of society, as we can clearly see st the national level as well.
Having witnessed rowdy teens inside shopping carts being wheeled about inside the store, obvious theft of batteries and being told by check out clerk they were told not to interfere, I simply limit my otherwise limited visits to times when HSers are less likely to be there. Herd behavior unchecked is too bad for the store's bottom line. The gig shopper should not have to go elsewhere. Sure HSers purchase. Still, no loitering signs would be a good addition, but easily ignored.
I'm no fan of Safeway but this is not really about Safeway's (many) shortcomings. And this is not about not having a 'teen center'. This is about out of control kids who have no respect for adults and think they can get away with theft and intimidation. Maybe if we start fining and otherwise holding their parents accountable, it'll put the onus of them to do a better parenting job. Coming on the heels of Dale Dougherty's excellent piece on academic underachievement in SoCo, it's clear there is a big problem with a lot of 'our' kids, who will have a rude awakening when they hit the competitive work world....without literacy, numeracy, manners, and good judgement.
Safeway should have security cameras installed. I find the delivery driver more credible but not having been there I cannot pass judgement on these students. Anyone who goes to this Safeway has seen the gatherings. None have ever threatened me, but I am a 6’1 and, as a man, may be less likely to be harassed.
They may be “kids” to some people, like the parent quoted in the article suggests, but they are fully capable of inflicting harm. It seems likely that most of these students were so-called “good” kids that were intimidated by one or more of the so-called “bad” ones into not being totally honest about what transpired. We all knew about this in high school, didn’t we? It’s nothing new.
Reminds me of national politics… a few thugs and so many followers.
It seems to me the school administration/district has some responsibility to maintain some sort of oversight on the students off campus. Saying it happened after school hours is not a responsible response. The merger of two campuses has resulted in traffic congestion and, it would seem, an escalation of issues at Safeway which has become a drop off and pickup site. I realize this has been a problem for many years. How about administrator stepping up to plate with some solutions rather than passing the buck?
Great article Laura. Not an easy solution to this. I really feel for the delivery driver. I'm glad she chose to work in Santa Rosa. Maybe the deliver service could assign a hulky person to deal with the rowdy teenagers at the Sebastopol site. I also think Safeway should do more to monitor the situation. Maybe Safeway could post a "no loitering" sign outside--kids could still shop but then have to congregate elsewhere. Personally I don't shop at Safeway during the hours that the kids are hanging out. Does Safeway realize that they're loosing business because of the teenagers presence? If it's a drop off/pick up site, then it could be elsewhere on the property--not right at the entrance/exit.
Like your suggestion and I would take a step farther. It's a problem created by the school. Give the school administrator the right and job of enforcing the no loitering at Safeway. Weren't we sold the teen center as the place for the kids to hangout. Direct them there. Car pickup there too.
Something to consider: Analy is no longer a small local school. Less we forget, the school board chose to prioritize county-wide open enrollment over being a basic school district that keeps its property taxes to fund exceptional programs for local kids. Instead of maximizing that revenue, the board has increased enrollment by drawing more than 30 per cent of students now at Analy from other schools as inter-district transfers. (1100 students in 2018 and 1530 students today) The aim was better educating every student including those farthest from opportunity. Analy is now a REGIONAL facility and it does excellent work. But this financial operating strategy, in actuality definitely impacts local residents and business in a huge variety of ways.
As someone who didn’t grow up here, I mostly love living in California, but this sort of thing makes me roll my eyes. Some kids here grow up WAY too entitled, and the result is this: harassing someone who’s just trying to do their (difficult, low-paying) job, then trying to play the victim because (gasp) she filmed them. They wouldn’t behave this way if anyone had taught them basic respect.
Also, it feels like schools here either refuse to enforce meaningful discipline or aren’t permitted to do so. At my daughter’s kindergarten, they are not even allowed to send home kids with lice, with the result that there have been multiple lice outbreaks throughout the school year, and tired parents have had to bear the burden of failed public health policy. What are we even doing here?
Surely being part of a community entails respecting some basic rules, like “don’t come to school with lice” or “don’t harass old ladies in the Safeway parking lot.” When individual “rights” (more like feelings) are put above all else, the result is the breakdown of society, as we can clearly see st the national level as well.
Having witnessed rowdy teens inside shopping carts being wheeled about inside the store, obvious theft of batteries and being told by check out clerk they were told not to interfere, I simply limit my otherwise limited visits to times when HSers are less likely to be there. Herd behavior unchecked is too bad for the store's bottom line. The gig shopper should not have to go elsewhere. Sure HSers purchase. Still, no loitering signs would be a good addition, but easily ignored.