After a long week of school, some middle school students take to the downtown streets of Powell to film TikTok videos and enjoy drinks from a coffee shop. Although there is a good group of kids who have found ways to occupy their time without causing disruption, other middle schoolers haven’t always been as respectful.

Despite the Park County Library’s efforts to entertain and provide activities for middle schoolers, this age group is struggling to find an outlet to release their energy after school, especially on Fridays, according to library staff and the downtown businesses who receive flocks of tweens.

For Powell students, every Friday is an early release, meaning students will be dismissed around 12:45 p.m. — times vary depending on the school. This early release creates a large portion of time where the students are out of school, but many of their parents are still working. This results in a mass amount of middle schoolers roaming the streets of Powell, and many of them cause disruption in local businesses.

Uncommon Grounds is a popular hangout spot on Friday afternoons for middle schoolers, which provides good business for the coffee shop, but also comes with some disadvantages. 

“We definitely love the business and love that they have a place to come to after school but the lack of supervision causes problems sometimes,” Uncommon Grounds Manager Alyssa Jackson said. 

Common issues such as inappropriate language, yelling and screaming discourage other customers from staying in the shop on Fridays.

“I want it to be a safe environment for everybody,” Jackson said. “There’s certain words sometimes that they say that are not appropriate because there are also elementary schoolers that come in here with their parents after school as well.”

Although the businesses do not want to ask these middle schoolers to leave, they feel as if they have to in order to keep a pleasant environment for their customers. 

“They just came in here and just wanted to hang out and be loud, and I just didn’t want that around other customers that they were in here at the time,” said Stephanie Cross, assistant manager of Rusty Skunk. “I don’t want to have to kick them out, but I have to put my foot down at some point.” 

Even though there are trouble makers, there are also plenty of students who do not cause trouble in the downtown businesses. The businesses have no problem with these students.

“There’s always this little group of kids that come in here, and I don’t mind them,” Eternal Light Creation owner Stacey Atkinson said. “I mean, they come in here because they know it’s a safe spot. So, for the most part I do get a good group of kids in here, but there’s always those bad seeds.”

In addition to dealing with the middle school students on Fridays, the library has students come in almost every day after school. The library struggles with middle school behavior issues such as graffiti, inappropriate language, throwing items around the library, running and constant arguments between students. 

The library staff recognizes there has been inconsistency with their expectations and what behaviors will be tolerated and which ones will not be. They believe, in the past, that people have either thought they were too tough or not tough enough on their rules. 

In the coming months, the library is striving to implement consistency in their rules. They are trying to find a balance of cracking down on their rules and not tolerating certain behaviors. The head of the library system, Karen Horner, acknowledges that “there is a behavior issue.”

“There’s a lot of energy and when that energy has no outlet, there’s destruction,” Young Adult Librarian Charis Christopher Cervantes said.

To combat this, the library offers a variety of activities to keep the students entertained including movies, building Legos, coloring books, crafts and even free snacks. 

The library also offers the use of PC computers which brings in students who want to play games virtually. The wide range of activities usually brings in a full group of middle schoolers. 

“There is always something that I’ve got set up and ready for them to experience when they walk in the door,” Cervantes said.

As one of the only places in Powell that offers a structured after school program on Fridays along with the Youth Clubs of Park County since the closure of Powell Makerspace, (the middle school has some programs other days after school) the library adopts a mindset that anything will help keep these students from being bored and mischievous.

Atkinson proposed an idea of introducing a rotation of downtown businesses that would host an after school activity each week. Then, the responsibility of providing an activity would not just fall on one, singular business.

Some businesses around Powell believe the middle school staff should be responsible for hosting a constructive after school activity; however, they realize that many of the students who are causing problems downtown would not attend these activities. 

“I’m not against the half day of school, but I do think that this school district should be responsible for providing something for these kids to do,” Atkinson said. “But, it’s so hard because you know the kids that are troublemaking probably wouldn’t be interested anyway.”

She said she believes the behavior issues stem from a lack of accountability, particularly at home. After businesses have complained about the disruption some kids are causing, she said parents will often reply that they have work, and there is nowhere else their students can go.

“I guess my viewpoint is if you can trust them to run all over town, you can trust them to go home after school,” Atkinson said.