Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Casuarina Square Centre Manager Polly Lamond says a 48-hour ban for local middle and school students is needed after 100 kids ran amok at the complex last week

Transcript

Casuarina Square Centre Manager Polly Lamond says a 48-hour ban for local middle and school students is needed after 100 kids ran amok at the complex last week · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: As we mentioned, we know that Casarina Squares management have
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: implemented a forty eight hour ban at the complex, stopping
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  Speaker 1: students from six Darwin schools from attending following a spate
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  Speaker 1: of fights at the center. Now the band takes effect
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  Speaker 1: today and we'll be imposed on all students from Casarina, Sandersen, Dripstone,
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  Speaker 1: Darwin Middle, Darwin High School and Nightcliffe Middle School. And
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about the situation is Casarina Square Center manager
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  Speaker 1: Polly Lemon. Good morning to you, Polly, good morning.
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  Speaker 2: How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? Really well, Thanks so much for your time this morning, Polly.
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  Speaker 1: This is an extraordinary move that the Casarina Shopping Square
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  Speaker 1: has had to take. I understand that there were one
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  Speaker 1: hundred students running a mark on Friday. What happened?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it is pretty pretty extraordinary. I think that's
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  Speaker 2: a good word to describe it. Yeah. Look, we had
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  Speaker 2: a series of incidents over the back half of last week.
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  Speaker 2: You know, some were quite serious, and we've decided to
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  Speaker 2: take this move to let school students know that we're
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  Speaker 2: not going to accept this behavior here.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know what I think? Good on you if
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  Speaker 1: you've got kids that are running a mark and you
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  Speaker 1: need to get things under control so that your shoppers
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  Speaker 1: and that your staff members, everybody working there can feel safe.
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  Speaker 1: I think that it's a step in the right direction.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, great, absolutely. You know, we understand that there'll be
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  Speaker 2: a group of people that are effectively punished for you know,
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  Speaker 2: the actions of the minority, but unfortunately, we feel like
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  Speaker 2: it's something that we need to do given what's happened
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  Speaker 2: last week.
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  Speaker 1: Now tell me what exactly did happen last week? Was
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  Speaker 1: it fighting or what was going on?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, fighting and just general nuisance behavior as well,
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  Speaker 2: so that the fighting is the real concern. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: really we deal with a lot of vandalism, graffiti, you know,
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  Speaker 2: our furniture being ruined. Yeah, it's all that stuff as well.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we just don't want to tolerate kids vaiting
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  Speaker 2: in the shopping center, walking all over our furniture and
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  Speaker 2: just not being respectful of the space.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Has anyone been injured as a result of some
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  Speaker 1: of what's gone.
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  Speaker 2: On, certainly the incident on Thursday, Yeah, a young person
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  Speaker 2: was injured.
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  Speaker 1: So what happened on Thursday?
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  Speaker 2: There was a school fight on Thursday at the shopping
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  Speaker 2: center in the food court, so that's one of the
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  Speaker 2: reasons we've taken this action.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, Polly, talk me through how is the
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  Speaker 1: band going to be enforced? Because I know a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people will be listening thinking, well, how can you
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  Speaker 1: stop these kids from getting in?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Fair enough. Yeah, Look, we've got additional security on.
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  Speaker 2: I've also got all of my center management team we'll
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  Speaker 2: be helping as well. We've got support from the department
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  Speaker 2: and the principals. We'll have additional police support today as well,
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  Speaker 2: so general duties, and I do believe we'll have the
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  Speaker 2: school based uxiliaries here as well helping out. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: everyone's pretty united in this, which is really great.
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  Speaker 1: It is good to see and much needed by the
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  Speaker 1: sounds of things, after what you've had to deal with
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  Speaker 1: over the last few days. Polly, are there going to
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  Speaker 1: be any exceptions for allowing students in under the ban
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  Speaker 1: at that center?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, if a student is here from one of
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  Speaker 2: those six schools and they're here with their parent or guardian,
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  Speaker 2: and they stay with their parent or guardian, and they
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  Speaker 2: are welcome to be here. But if they're just here
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  Speaker 2: to hang out, we're not going to accept that at
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  Speaker 2: the moment. If a student is here to do a
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  Speaker 2: shift at work and they can demonstrate to us that
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  Speaker 2: they work at one of the stores here, then that's
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  Speaker 2: acceptable too.
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  Speaker 1: Now what about parents, I mean, do you think that
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  Speaker 1: they've got to take a little bit more responsibility or
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  Speaker 1: accountability for what some of the kids are doing, or
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  Speaker 1: do they even realize what's going on?
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it could be a little bit from Colin
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  Speaker 2: Man a little bit, columb We would love to see
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  Speaker 2: people take responsibility and you know, work with their children
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  Speaker 2: to set standards of behavior, because we certainly have standards
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  Speaker 2: of behavior here that we will accept and we won't
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  Speaker 2: but you're right as well, they might not know that
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  Speaker 2: this is going on with their children. So we do
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  Speaker 2: our best to work with the schools and we do
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  Speaker 2: work with families as well and let them know that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, their children are here engaging in this behavior.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Pollie, obviously you know over the last week or so,
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  Speaker 1: this has come to a head for you guys at
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  Speaker 1: Casuarina Square. But I mean, is it something that you've
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  Speaker 1: been grappling with for a while.
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  Speaker 2: I think what happens when schools go back is there's
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  Speaker 2: a little inn someone used the word peacocking. Can happen
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  Speaker 2: so young people moving up in you know, from middle
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  Speaker 2: to senior school, or maybe something's gone on over the
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  Speaker 2: school holidays, and you know that that happens over a
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  Speaker 2: month or two when school goes back. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: we're a shopping center and we're not prepared to tolerate
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  Speaker 2: that sort of behavior at the shopping center.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, what's the plan for when this lifts on Wednesday?
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  Speaker 1: Are you expecting to see an influx?
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  Speaker 2: I really hope that young people do the right thing
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday, and I hope that we can welcome them
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  Speaker 2: back and we don't have any further incidents. We want
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  Speaker 2: to give young people the opportunity to do the right thing.
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  Speaker 1: What would you say to anybody listening this morning, Polly,
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  Speaker 1: who's thinking, oh, this is unbelievable. You know, how can
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  Speaker 1: the shopping center or why would the shopping center ban kids?
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  Speaker 1: My kids go there and they behave themselves.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, we acknowledge that it's a minority making
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  Speaker 2: it difficult for the majority, unfortunately, but we think it's
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  Speaker 2: necessary to do this because we can't have these large
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  Speaker 2: flights happening in the shopping center it's just not on,
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  Speaker 2: and I think the vast majority of people would agree
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  Speaker 2: with us. We've got an obligation to keep our shoppers
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  Speaker 2: and our retailers safe, and although it might seem like
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  Speaker 2: a bold move, we think it's necessary.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I think, you know, it's pretty unbelievable. Like I
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  Speaker 1: said on the get go, it's extraordinary that you've had
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  Speaker 1: to take this measure, But you spot on in that
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  Speaker 1: you've got to make sure that you keep your shoppers safe,
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  Speaker 1: and that you keep everybody that's working there safe. Absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: and even other kids, you know, even other people that
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  Speaker 1: are there doing the right thing. You don't want them
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  Speaker 1: to have to put up with bad behavior.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I remember as a young person
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  Speaker 2: going to the shops after school and you'd meet up
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  Speaker 2: with your friends and gossip about the day and have
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  Speaker 2: a frozen coach. That's what we want, you know, we
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  Speaker 2: want young people to be able to come here and
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  Speaker 2: do that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so true, Polly. I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having your chat with us,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll be really interested to hear how it all
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  Speaker 1: goes over the next couple of days. Good luck, Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: thank you,