In last Friday’s edition, intern Valerie Luyckx explored the lack of after-school and weekend activities for Sedona’s teenagers.
Luyckx and her compatriot, intern Ashley Sutherland, are incoming seniors at Sedona Red Rock High School. As such, they had a unique perspective on the topic as well as a vested interest in bringing to light this ongoing issue that affects them and their peers. Luyckx interviewed local officials and other teenagers all of whom acknowledged the problem but had few solutions.
To the city’s credit, the Sedona Parks & Recreation Department hosted a teen dance night at a local restaurant. Teens had asked for such an event prior to the end of the last school year. However, despite advertisements, flyers and social media posts, only a handful of teens attended and the event was canceled after the first month.
Part of the weak turnout was the event took place when teens’ social networks are weakened by lack of contact due to the summer vacation, the event charged a cover fee and was hosted at a primarily adult venue teens typically don’t frequent.
Therein lies the big problem for Sedona’s teens: There is no venue they frequent. There are plenty after-school clubs, sports teams and other adult-regulated activities, but there isn’t a hangout where teens can be safe but also be themselves without chaperones — think The Bronze from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or Arnold’s from “Happy Days.”
The Sedona Teen Center was a noble attempt to help build a community scene, but was built so far away from SRRHS that it never functioned as an after-school hangout. No school nor city buses went there. It’s a 40-minute walk from SRRHS and if teens had access to a vehicle, there are other places they would go instead. It’s also so far from State Route 89A teens were unlikely to casually drive by and decide to drop in if it was busy. The center’s failure to serve local teens was the largest issue we tackled when I served on the former Sedona Child & Youth Commission.
With few exceptions, restaurants close by 9 p.m. and don’t allow kids to hang out all night. Sedona’s coffeeshops now all close before sunset. Bars are understandably off-limits. So instead, teens do a handful of outdoor activities, hang out at each other’s homes and count the days to when they can leave Sedona after graduation. This also means they’re less likely return after college and help Sedona become a better community for us all, perpetuating the cycle.
Like adults, many teens turn to drugs, disruptive behavior or vandalism not because of bad childhoods, moral failings or peer pressure, but simply because there was nothing else to do between 7 and 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night.
Most teens don’t have a lot of disposable income, but offering a late-night restaurant, coffeeshop, all-ages music venue, recreation center, video-game arcade or late-night movie theater gives teens something to do and is more constructive than mischief. A place where they can make art, play music, write poetry, study, meet new people and old friends, read, gossip and yes, flirt, in a safe environment would keep teens busy, keep some off drugs and foster a sense of community in Sedona.
