{"id":10665,"date":"2026-04-21T02:07:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/van-aken-districts-chaperone-policy-now-takes-effect-starting-at-4-p-m-citing-incidents-cleveland-19-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:07:52","slug":"van-aken-districts-chaperone-policy-now-takes-effect-starting-at-4-p-m-citing-incidents-cleveland-19-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/van-aken-districts-chaperone-policy-now-takes-effect-starting-at-4-p-m-citing-incidents-cleveland-19-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Aken District\u2019s chaperone policy now takes effect starting at 4 p.m., citing incidents – Cleveland 19 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO) – The Van Aken District\u2019s chaperone policy now has an earlier start time as the business and leisure center attempts to control incidents of unruly teenagers.
According to the new policy that took effect at the start of April, anyone under 18 years old must be accompanied by either a parent or adult 25 years or older as early as 4 p.m.<\/a>
The previous policy didn\u2019t require a teenage chaperone until 8 p.m.
Reactions from Monday\u2019s Van Aken visitors were mixed.
\u201cI\u2019m not saying all of them but there are some out there, some riffraffs that want to tear up and everything,\u201d said Shelia Johnson. \u201cFor them to change the policy, we have to learn.\u201d
\u201cUntil someone becomes a problem, I not sure that they should not be let in,\u201d commented Scott Lees.
Gena Page had a different concern for the teenagers: \u201cI realize why it has to be done, I just don\u2019t know where they\u2019re gonna go, they need a place to hang out.\u201d
General manager Jesse Rathner says the rule update is meant to curb unwanted behavior.
He explains if younger visitors come \u201cin the sense of coming here to go shopping at a store, purchase food from a restaurant, study, listen to live music, there\u2019d be no problem. But we were starting to see more of those other incidents outweigh those.\u201d
The policy change also comes a few weeks after a March 22nd \u201cteen takeover\u201d, where over 100 teenagers coordinated through social media to show up at the same time.
Rathner described the scene as chaotic:
\u201cThere were some fights that did break out that night. We did have kids taking bikes, riding them through the market hall, the hover boards, the scooters. There was a lot of vaping, there was some pot usage. There was also some physicality directed towards security officers, as well as the police officers. I do know some arrests were made that evening…for five police jurisdictions to have to get involved, that says that there was a lot of resources needed to manage this situation.\u201d
19 News also reached out to the Shaker Heights Police Department for more information on the March 22nd takeover, but have yet to receive additional information.
Van Aken staff are asking parents to take on a bigger role in the safety of their kids.
\u201cWhat we\u2019re asking is for parents to be more engaged, to be accountable for their kids,\u201d Rathner said. \u201cWhen they show up in large groups for them to assist us.\u201d
Van Aken staff explained the rule changes are not permanent; they can become stricter or looser depending on how patrons respond.
\u201cWe\u2019re going to take a data-driven approach to evaluating,\u201d Rathner said. \u201cThat will influence our ability on whether or not we\u2019re able to make that change.\u201d
The future of teenagers\u2019 freedom at the Van Aken district is a question both guests and staff will continue to mull over.
\u201cGive this place a chance. Give any place you go to a chance, you won\u2019t have to be curfewed out,\u201d Johnson said.
Copyright 2026 WOIO. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n

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SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO) – The Van Aken District\u2019s chaperone policy now has an earlier start time as the business and leisure center attempts to control incidents of unruly teenagers.According to the new policy that took effect at the start of April, anyone under 18 years old must be accompanied by either a parent or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}