You had 7,800 things to say about NJ’s teen disruption problem
Last week I wrote that affordability might not be New Jersey's biggest problem right now. That the real crisis might be something harder to fix than a property tax bill — the collapse of consequences for teens and young adults who have figured out that social media gives them an audience, and that audience gives them confidence, and that confidence has been showing up on our boardwalks and at our community carnivals in ways that are shutting events down permanently and forcing shore towns to redirect serious law enforcement resources just to keep a summer night peaceful.
The response was unlike anything I have seen in a long time on our Facebook page. 7,200 reactions. 7,800 comments. 1,400 shares.
You had things to say.
I read through as many as I could. I am not going to pretend the comment thread was uniformly civil — it was not, and some of what showed up there I am leaving out of this piece entirely. But underneath the noise was something real. Most of you are frustrated, most of you are reasonable, and most of you landed in roughly the same place.
Here is what you said.
Hold the Parents Accountable
This was the single loudest theme in the entire thread, and it was not close. Comment after comment pointed in the same direction.
Kristina said it simply: hold the parents accountable, make them pay for any and all damages caused by their kid. Christine, who grew up at the Jersey Shore, put it this way: parenting doesn't stop when your child leaves the house. Mary Lou said towns know the dates before it happens — senior cut day, prom, graduation — and need to be set up and ready before the crowds arrive, not after.
Brandy raised something I had not thought about. She pointed out that in New Jersey, once a child turns 14, parents can call for therapists or treatment but cannot enforce it. Kids don't listen and parents get charged for hitting them. It is a catch-22, she wrote, and she is not wrong. The legal framework around juvenile accountability in this state is worth a serious look.
Irene suggested something practical: take the kids to the police station, hold them until parents show up and pay a fine. If their Saturday night gets interrupted, maybe they pay closer attention next time.
SEE ALSO: Carnivals cancelled, boardwalks locked down — NJ can't have nice things
Consequences Have to Mean Something
The second theme was just as consistent. Fine the kids. Fine the parents. Make it hurt enough to matter.
Donna suggested escalating fines — a thousand dollars for a first offense, two thousand for the second. Carol said post their faces around town, let their peers see what they did. Christine proposed ankle monitors for repeat offenders — school and home, no sports, no part-time jobs, a real taste of restriction.
Karen made the point that teenagers have figured out the system. They know cops can't do much because they are minors, she wrote, and they take full advantage of it. That is not a criticism of police. That is a criticism of a system that has signaled to young people that there is no floor.
Danny put it as plainly as anyone: you encourage what you tolerate.
What Towns Can Actually Do Right Now
Several readers focused on practical, immediate steps rather than systemic fixes.
Jennifer made a point about the trains — track unusual volume of kids, she said, because that is how they are arriving in Long Branch and it must be pretty obvious when it is happening. Kevin suggested visible police presence, curfews and required chaperones. Jason said it simply: no unaccompanied minors. Brian went further and said no one under 20 on the boardwalks after a certain hour.
Kendall pointed to something that actually worked. California placed sheriffs at the gates of their state fair, she said — under 18 without a legal guardian, you do not get in. No issues. The state fair ran clean.
Cecilia wrote the most detailed comment I pulled from the thread and it is worth reading closely. She made the case that visible, sustained police presence is the foundation, that arrests of teens need to actually happen and stick, that parents need to face real bail and fines, and that shore towns need to solve this fast — because you cannot charge ten thousand dollars a week for a rental in a town where there is chaos, and that rental market will disappear before the end of the season.
She is not wrong about that either.
The Thing Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud
Cindy asked a question that I think deserves more attention than it usually gets. She wrote: teens are too old for playgrounds and too young for bars. Where do they go? What do they do?
That is not a defense of anyone who fought on a boardwalk or shut down a carnival. It is a real question. We have spent decades in this state cutting after-school programs, defunding recreation centers, eliminating the kind of supervised spaces where teenagers used to have somewhere to be. If we are serious about solving this and not just reacting to it summer after summer, that question has to be part of the conversation.
Tom suggested lowering prices so kids can afford activities other than standing around. It sounds simple. It is not entirely wrong.
Where We Are Right Now
Seaside Heights had a peaceful Memorial Day weekend. Wildwood did too. The 58° wind driven rain helped. The curfews and the increased security presence worked. That is real and it matters.
But Christine, who grew up at the Shore, said what a lot of you were thinking: born and raised here, and no, we absolutely did not have hundreds of teenagers taking over towns, causing chaos, fighting, destroying property, and making families feel unsafe. That is not nostalgia. That is an accurate description of something that has changed.
The carnivals that have shut down are not coming back easily. Some of them are the biggest fundraisers of the year for the nonprofits that run them. The families who want to take their little kids to ride the Ferris wheel and smell the funnel cake and eat a sausage sandwich — that is a tradition worth protecting. So is our beach and boardwalk culture. It is worth getting serious about.
You clearly think so too. Nearly 8,000 comments says you are paying attention. So are we.
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