I agree with you that there are lots of adults in the world that don’t trust teenagers, but I have to say that I don’t blame them. There are more teens these days that can be trusted than cannot, but the group that can’t be trusted is just too large for adults to be able to trust all teens. Let’s look at the situation in an adult’s shoes. A group of teens walk into your store. You have saved a lot of money to open up this store, and it is your only source of income. Wouldn’t the thought of these teenagers being unsupervised in your store scare you? It would definitely scare me, especially if it were some of my friends today!

I also agree that feeling mistrusted is a terrible feeling. As much as I feel these adults have the right to not trust us, making us feel like we are mistrusted is going too far. I believe I have the perfect example of this. Over the summer I was with a group of teens, probably around ten, at a movie theater. I was wearing a sweatshirt with small pockets on each side. In one of those pockets I had my cell phone, in the other my I Pod and some money. The pockets were so small that the items made large bulges in my sweatshirt, and it was clear that I had things on me. As I was walking into the theater, the manager stopped me and forced me to open my pockets. It wasn’t in a nice way either. I showed him what I had and he let me go into the movie.

Probably two weeks later I went back to the same theater, this time with my family. It later occurred to me that I was wearing the same sweatshirt and was carrying the same items. The situation was exactly the same as before, only this time I walked in with my dad. Sure enough, I saw the manager there. I even thought we made eye contact. But did he stop me? No. Just because my dad was there he didn’t make me empty my pockets.

I don’t know why he decided to stop me in the first place. Maybe he thought I was sneaking food into the movie? But whatever the reason, he should treat me the same whether I am with an adult or with my friends. This is my example of making teens feel like we are mistrusted, which needs to stop.

It is ok for adults not to trust teens, and if they feel like they need to watch us more closely, they should. But making us feel uncomfortable or mistrusted is wrong. When it comes to how they should treat us, it should be no different that if we are with an adult or when we are with our friends. In your last sentence you wrote, “We should be able to be trusted and be given a chance, otherwise this is just going to get worse for everyone.” Unfortunately, teens have been given a chance many times, and lots of times teens have not taken advantage of it. It’s only a small group of teens that are causing this mistrust, but because of that group all teens suffer.