Make the Okotoks Community Centre A Safe Place for our kids

Parents and children who use the Okotoks Community Center are expressing concern about teens who are loitering around the Okotoks Community Center after school hours and especially on Friday nights for Teen Night. Many of the teens are smoking cigarettes and many are smoking marijuana in view of the patrons of the complex. The teens are often obnoxious to children and other teens and are intimidating the kids who are using the facility for sports and appropriate uses.

They hang around the entrance way, which all the kids have to pass through to get to their activities, and are also often inside the building harassing the children who are using the facilities properly. In one instance a group of young female swimmers were exposed to the bare butt of a teen boy who pulled down his pants at the window.

Friday nights are especially intimidating as large groups gather for teen night. It seems the teen night is only frequented by certain teens and many are using drugs and alcohol before entering the building. Younger kids and also teens and adults are intimidated by the groups who gather and loiter.

Visitors to our Okotoks Community Center are not greeted with the type of atmosphere we think should represent our town. We would like to request firmer rules for teen night and firmer rules to keep kids who are merely loitering and smoking and being disruptive out of the building and away from the building entrances.