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It's Not a Crime to Be a Teenager

© Terrie Lynn Bittner

Where I live, groups of four or more teens in a car together can be stopped and asked for ID. Why is it a crime for teenagers to be together in a group? Because all groups of teens are presumed to be a gang, and therefore subject to suspicion and examination. Imagine the uproar if we tried to limit adults to small groups, or regularly demanded identification from them on the assumption that they were criminals? There is a scandal when this happens to racial minorities, but there is seldom a squeak of complaint when it happens to teenagers. More and more cities and states are passing laws that have no other purpose than to protect its citizenry against its teenagers. Becoming a teenager has become a crime.

Why are we so afraid of our teens? Have we forgotten what it felt like to be a good teen who was stared at with suspicion regularly? I can remember the anger I felt when store personnel watched me closely, or fast food restaurants made me wait until all the adults had been waited on. I remember feeling somehow embarrassed by the signs on stores stating that no more than three teenagers were allowed in the store at any one time. I felt there must have been something bad, something evil, about being a teenager. I wondered if everyone expected me to pull out a gun, hold up a store or...or what? What were people afraid of? I was a well-behaved child who liked to read classic literature, went to school daily, and obeyed her parents reasonably well. Why was I bad just because of my age?

This was in the seventies, so it isn't that teens are so much worse than they ever were in the past. It's simply our perception of them that has changed in many cases. Oh yes, there are bad teens...and bad adults. There are teens who shoot their classmates...there are adults who shoot their co-workers. There are teens who join gangs...which are largely run by adults. There are teens who..you get the picture. The fact that there are some teens who are making terrible choices for their lives does not mean that all teens are, any more than does the existence of criminal adults mean all adults are criminal. And yet, we act as if they are all bad, or at least have the potential to misbehave, particularly in the company of their friends.

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