Hey, there! Log in / Register
Somerville library to hire private guards to ward off teen ruffians from neighboring high school
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
This seems like an extreme solution.
If they make noise, kick them out. If they do worse, kick them out and report them to the school for discipline. There are time tested solutions to this problem.
Librarians have other things to do
Librarians have other things to do than act as security guards policing a bunch of rowdy teens. Do you expect dishwashers to throw out drunk patrons in a restaurant?
If assigning cops didn't work
What makes the library think hiring armed security will? When we have to hire bouncers to protect library patrons from teenage troublemakers, we have a societal problem that can't be solved by hiring bouncers or police officers. Try playing classical music or meet with the kids and their parents before you hire library bouncers.
Because you can fire armed security if they don't do their job
whereas the cops just sit around with their thumbs up their asses, with no repercussions.
(Also, classical music? Seriously?)
Good points.
Some places do play classical music where teens hang out to drive them off. The premise is that teens can’t tolerate classical music. However I am a lifelong lover of classical music as were many of my teen friends, so that would have attracted us rather than repelled us.
Another sound repellent is high pitched tones similar to rodent sound repellents. Adults loose the ability to hear the higher tones and re unaffected.
My sister banned cell phone use in her undergraduate classes. So some students set their ring tones to the high pitches. However she could tell by body movements and facial expressions when the ring tones went off. The students were dismayed because she just let them keep thinking she had youthful ears.
Why can’t we get security guards for bike lanes?
If we can get them for schools.
jfc
I get why they want this but is this a good use of funds?
Are there that many patrons between 1:45 and 3pm that cannot go to the library because its closed during that time that we need to hire security guards?!? I mean why not get a SPD detail instead.. they are already on the city's payroll.
SPD is stretched to the limit
Every street in the city is under construction, and every construction project needs 1 or 2 cops to stand there scratching their asses and drinking coffee
True
Maybe National Grid can be convinced to dig a trench in the library.
The cops have a tough job.
The cops have a tough job. You ever try napping with a construction worker using a jackhammer nearby?!
Well, in fact I have.
And it was when I lived in Somerville.
They have tried to work with
They have tried to work with the city and police for about 2 years on this problem and things seem to be getting worse. A patron was beaten badly enough to be sent to the hospital. Fireworks being set off in your building of flammable material, children, and people with moving issues is not optimal.
Ok
Then stay closed during the current time period.
I'm sorry if police cannot seem to handle this problem, what makes the library think private security will do much else. The article does not specific which type of security because there are two kinds.. 1) Basically a mall cop b) armed guards.
Not sure a 'mall cop' would do any better than SPD. And armed guards cost a shit ton of money (I had to quote out services for this at one point), and come with liability, so I think its more than likely it will be a glorified mall cop.
"cannot"
"cannot" is doing a lot of work here.
Got a better word, Miss Crabtree?
From the OP above. "Tried to work with police"
If they have tried and it did not work, 'cannot' is the best phrase here because they tried and failed. So they 'cannot seem to handle this problem' fits.
Relax, Mr. Crankypants
You're losing track of your own references, cyber. You said the following:
The "cannot" refers to the police. Your "they" above refers to the library staff. Do you see the difference?
Why not hire Mr. Bookman (of
Why not hire Mr. Bookman (of Seinfeld fame)?
I don't seem to recall the
I don't seem to recall the underlying problems the rowdy teens were causing in that library; Anybody got a link?
Read up
See anon's comment above.
Somerville library to hire
Somerville library to hire old toughs…
Forty to sixty year-old toughs hired on to force disruptive teens to sit down and shut up.
hellz ānjelz
hellz ānjelz