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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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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 29, 2008

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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