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Libraries Are Teen Magnets, And The Staffs Don't Mind
News Channel 8 photo by ERIC HAUSMANN
Bloomingdale Regional Public Library used to have a private security guard, but the service was cut after the budget shrank a few months ago.
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Published: April 29, 2008
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VALRICO - To get inside Bloomingdale Regional Public Library after 3 p.m. on any weekday, a patron has to navigate through a throng of teenagers, all refugees from the adjacent Bloomingdale High School.
They walk here. They sit outside and chat. They go inside to use a computer or finish up homework.
Authorities say one of them was here late Thursday when an 18-year-old girl drove up after-hours and tried to return some books in a repository. Kendrick Morris, a 16-year-old freshman at Bloomingdale High, is accused of raping the teen and beating her unconscious. He remains in custody at a juvenile assessment facility, held without bail.
Authorities said Morris came to the library after school, waiting for his mother to pick him up when she got off work.
Lots of students use the library that way, and sometimes it creates a problem, said Jennifer Heath, a parent who regularly takes her children to the library to work on school projects.
"A lot of people use it for babysitting," she said. "I feel sorry for the librarian."
She said a lot of them are good children, but she has been there when teenagers act up.
"There is a lot of screaming, smoking and cussing," she said. "Some are making out in the corner."
Not true, said a bunch of teenagers outside the front door on Monday afternoon.
Brandon Bagshaw, 15 and a freshman at Bloomingdale, chatted with friends standing under the overhang by the front door just after school let out. With bright-red dyed hair and sporting a University of South Florida baggy shirt, he said the library is a great place to be after school until he gets picked up to go home.
"It's shady here. There's a water fountain inside," he said. "I can go in and do my homework or get on the computer. I usually stay for two hours, sometimes three, maybe more."
He likes it here.
"If this place closes down," he said, "I'll still come here."
"I'm here every day for three hours," said Vanessa Lee, a 17-year-old senior at Bloomingdale. She's never seen any problems. Teens chat; nobody complains she said.
"Whenever I can, I hang out here, play with the computer or do my homework," said Charles Mentzer, a 16-year-old freshman who played football with Morris this past year.
"This is really a peaceful place," he said.
For many teens, the library is the only option after school.
"I come here about every day," said 16-year-old Jordan Conn, a sophomore at Bloomingdale. "At school, they make you leave. I come here to use the computer or sit out here and hang out."
The library used to have a private security guard, but the service was cut after the budget shrank a few months ago.
Wilhemenia Figgs was that guard at Bloomingdale. She said there never were problems with the teens who showed up after school while she was there. She showed up Monday in her Iron Eagle Security uniform to visit friends. Now a guard at Port of Tampa, she chatted easily with the throng of teenagers out front.
"A lot of kids come here," she said. "They all mind pretty well. None of them are trouble."
Bloomingdale librarian Jim Shelton has been in the book-lending business for 19 years but was finishing up his first day Monday as head librarian at Bloomingdale. He took up the job as part of a scheduled rotation, coming from the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa.
He said he wants as many people as possible -- young and old -- making use of the library services.
"Our policy is to treat all those who come here the same," he said. "We certainly are here for everyone."
He said Blake High School students often showed up at the downtown library after school. They never caused any serious problems, he said.
"There was no trouble," he said.
A crowd of teenagers congregating at a library is not a bad thing, said Hillsborough library services director Joe Stines.
"I've been a librarian for 40 years," he said, "and this is an age-old question. Librarians embrace the youth coming in and see them as an opportunity."
With computers and other forms of technology that teens are interested in, "We are seeing more teens than 10-15 years ago," Stines said. "Occasionally, we have problems, particularly problems at branches near schools, but it's never anything we can't handle."
At the Seminole Heights Public Library, across from Hillsborough High School, the hours after school lets out can get crowded. "Because the library is so small, we have to line them up and only allow so many in at a time, and that's adults as well," he said.
All in all, libraries all over the county welcome the influx of teens after school lets out, he said.
"Our staff is doing a lot of creative things, teaching the teens how to use the technology we have to help them improve reports," Stines said. "And we're doing a lot of fun things, too.
"We see it as opportunity to reach them," he said. "We probably are reaching as many teens now as we have ever have."
Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( RangerDave ) on April 29, 2008 at 3:42 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Way to go Kenneth...what's the saying, "one bad apple can ruin the bunch".
Man, how many times did hear my parents tell me to "keep my hands to yourself!". Kenneth...note to self, "keep my hands to my self." Repeat until you finally understand its meaning.
Hey kids...keep the library clean and use it for its intended purpose and your privilege of hanging out there shouldn't be taken away. Abuse it, and you'll see restrictions on its availability to you.
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Posted by ( valricomomof3 ) on April 29, 2008 at 4:23 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
If I worked at the library and depended on it for my income and wanted to be safe going to work there everyday I think I would say that the kids there were not a problem too!!! They should put a library next to the movie theater in brandon so the scary people that hangout there that make it necessary for more than one sheriff to be monitoring the place can go inside. Then our deputies can at least go inside and babysit in the air conditioning!
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Posted by ( meetoo ) on April 30, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Come on now. Look around when your at a public library. The kids are playing, playing games on computers, etc. Talking on cell phones, socializing, Very few are in the study mode. I know I have seen lots of them be trespassed because of misbehavior.
I think that libraries need to get out of the computer business and stick with the books. Computers are necessary but for study not fun and games. We need rec centers for that maybe.
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Posted by ( CharlieP ) on May 1, 2008 at 8:16 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The crime that was committed at the library is tragic and we all hope and pray that the young woman has a complete recovery. In Florida's suburban society, teens need safe, supervised places to spend afternoons where they can engage in activities that contribute to their learning and growth after the school day ends. That the public library has emerged as such a haven is a tribute to the elected officials who approve those services and the dedicated library staff who provide them. Without libraries and the supervision they provide in our neighborhoods, teens would find less wholesome activity and a lot more trouble.
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