Articulation Day causes stress to local businesses

By Sarah Garrett,
Bluedevilhub.com Editor—

Each semester, students from both the junior highs and high schools in Davis are released from school early and have the entire afternoon to do whatever they may please. Many students take this opportunity as a time to go downtown and get lunch with their friends. However, the large number of teenagers in downtown Davis at the same time can be very stressful for local businesses.

According to Newsbeat owner Janis Lott, in past years students have taken Articulation Day as an opportunity to steal from their store, particularly because of the many small trinkets and candies they sell that are easy to quickly stuff in a pocket. Lott believes that students are more likely to steal when they are in large groups.

“There are just certain occasions when there are so many bodies in the store that you cannot keep track of what everybody’s doing,” Lott said.

Lott says that Articulation Day would be less stressful if her business knew when it was ahead of time, so they could plan and make sure they had multiple workers in the store on that day. Unfortunately, however, it is very difficult to find out when Articulation Day is and the district never notifies businesses either.

“It should not be that hard to just communicate that information to the downtown business association,” Lott said.

Harper Jr. High freshman Julia Curtis went downtown for this semester’s Articulation Day and understands how it may be frustrating for businesses such as Newsbeat.

“I think that businesses have a right to complain,” Curtis said. “It’s bad of kids to steal and they do that.”

Curtis also thinks that many adults may try to avoid going downtown on Articulation Day because there are so many students who may not be on their best behavior. She even knows of students who engaged in gallon smashing at grocery stores on previous Articulation Days.

Despite the behavior of certain students, Lott still avoids thinking that all students might act this way.

“You want to think the best of people,” Lott said. “But sometimes when there’s a crowd, when people are in large groups, some people may do things that they would never do on their own.”