More than half of all Morton East students say that they don’t follow the North Riverside Park Mall’s curfew.

The mall’s curfew only applies on Fridays and Saturdays. The curfew states that any youth, 17 and under, are not allowed to be alone in the mall after 6 pm. The only way for a youth to be able to enter the mall after 6pm is to be accomplished by an adult age 21 or older. One adult may be able to accomplish 4 youth or less. Also, Studies show that 93% of cities that currently enforce a curfew law believe it is effective. With this, a recent study by UC-Berkeley showed that in 54 cities that had a population of 180,000 or more, youth arrests dropped by 10% once a youth curfew was instituted. In a random survey of 100 Morton East Students, 65% of students reported they do not obey the curfew at North Riverside Park Mall. 

Most people adults believe that curfews are to protect kids. 

“Towns put curfews to keep teens out of trouble,” Dean Mr. Dugan said.

Other people just outright never followed curfew. 

“I never followed curfew, not concerning,” Spanish Teacher Mr.Russo said.

Students who don’t follow curfew usually head out to malls to hide. 

“Teens would hide at North Riverside Park Mall,” Head Security Linda Bultrini (Scooby) said.  

The punishment is bad but not terrible for being there after curfew. 

“Teens would be brought to station and given tickets,” Cicero school police officer Mike said. 

But the curfew is not fully enforced by all mall security. 

“We usually enforce the policy when there are multiple of students/ teens in the mall and or teens start to get rowdy,” Riverside Mall Security Cristal said.