Teens feel restricted
 Setting priorities
 Enough to make you go insane
 Going overboard

 Thanks for helping us stand
 Resisting pressures of popularity
 Double standard
 Long-distance

 The 1999 issue home page

     It only took one night to make Sabrina Lloyd of Forest High School in Ocala feel that restrictions on teens have definitely gotten stricter.
     "After our movie got out at around 12 at night, my friends and I were walking to a nearby Subway, and a cop pulled up to question us about why we were out. When we told him what we were doing, and why we were out so late, he finally let us go," said Lloyd, 14.
     Teens were once able to gather together at any given time and place. Now restrictions hold teens back from enjoying such privileges as the video games they want to play, the movies they want to watch, and the music they want to listen to — all because of the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy.
     Popular hangouts such as the movies or malls are now overrun by police officers looking for "suspicious teens." Going to school has always been an everyday routine, but since Columbine it has become grounds for teenagers to fear the once safe hallways.
     Andrew Cohen, who manages three Blockbuster Video stores in the Gainesville area, considers Blockbuster to be a "family store" geared towards family life. Extra precautions were made at Blockbuster Video after the Columbine incident. "We made a more clear and prominent rating system on the video games, that differed from the movie's rating system." Cohen said. The Blockbuster Video stores also made bigger signs to display in their stores and placed flyer stands at the end of the video game aisles with literature for the parents to take home to gain knowledge of ratings for their child's video games.
     Due to their violent content, video games as Quake and Doom have been banned from certain video stores. "I would never let my youngest son play or even watch games with those kind of images," said Carolynn Labus of New Port Richey, mother of two boys, ages 7 and 16, "but I think that my teenage son is mature enough to handle its content."
     Blockbuster Video has established a youth restriction program designed to help parents monitor their teen's entertainment. A special card is issued to members, and parents must specify if the card holders can rent R-rated movies.
     Not only have teens' privileges to play video games and watch movies has been affected, but so has their choice of music. "The sponsors who were putting on Rockfest asked certain bands not to play  certain songs because of their lyrics," said Krista Cole of Bloomingdale High School in Tampa, who attended Rockfest in Atlanta, Georgia, "but they played them anyway."
     In certain stores you have to be at least 17 to buy certain CD's. Those CD's with explicit lyrics have stickers that tell the buyers that they will be carded when they purchase that item.
     Movie theaters in New Port Richey, are also getting tougher on teens. Some theaters either require to see an ID to prove that you are 17, or you have to have a parent or legal guardian sign your ticket stub in front of the cashier. As you enter the door of the auditorium that your movie is to be  shown, you must present your ticket stub. "This system has been in effect for almost a year," says Jennifer Howard, a sophomore at Ridgewood High School in New Port Richey, "but they have become even more strict since April."
     By taking away the teenagers privileges of movies, music and video games, it only causes the teenagers to seem more "rebellious" in their course of actions. Trying to change things that some say have had an effect on our generation is going to make teens seem like they are getting worse because they will
find ways around the new rules to engage in the activities that they had enjoyed long before Columbine.
     "Why are we being punished for two teenager's actions?" asked Chuck Geranimo, a sophomore a Ridgewood High School of New Port Richey. "We didn't even have a relationship with them."
     Teens seem to realize that there will be new rules and regulations, but are asking the same questions, "why are we being punished?"
     Dee Holcomb, a teacher and counselor at Dunellon High School in Marion County, and mother of a Dunellon High student, said, "Most of my students understand what the parents, teachers, an government are trying to do, but they just haven't learned to cope with it yet. These are your toughest years, and everyone who you are told to respect, is telling you that you are wrong. This causes the students to blame themselves, and try to find fault within the confines of their intermediate lives."