The new chaperone policy introduced at Six Flags Great America requires guests ages 15 and younger to be accompanied by an adult.
According to the Six Flags website, the adult chaperone must be at least 21 years of age. The policy was originally in effect all day, however, after July 20th, the policy was changed to begin at 5:00p.m until the park closes each day.
“[The new chaperone policy] makes it really hard to go to the park, especially during those couple of days where [those aged 15 and younger] had to have had an adult with them at all times,” Elise Rogers, sophomore, said.
The new policy has caused many Lake Zurich High School students the loss of opportunity to visit the bustling amusement park in the summer due to their parent’s schedules. Rogers believes the new policy makes it even harder for students to coordinate a visit because of having to free up a parent’s schedule, along with whoever they go with.
“I feel that the policy is pointless because [my mom] just sat in the food court doing work while me and my friend went on rides,” Rogers said.
Rogers doesn’t think the new chaperone policy will stop young teenagers from wanting to go to Six Flags. However, she is not the only one to believe that the implemented policy will fail. When asked about the effectiveness of the policy, Cara Oh, sophomore, did not believe it would work.
“I feel like a lot of people will just ignore it or lie about their age, and the park wouldn’t care that much if they do,” Oh said.
While 15 year old’s cannot legally drive on their own, they may want to go to the park with someone under the age of 21 who is of age to legally drive. The new policy makes it hard for a group like that to be able to enter the park without a 21 year old supervisor, which is especially difficult when the visitors have to drive far to get to the park.
“I feel that the new policy is not useful, but also that it doesn’t affect me that much because I can’t drive. Though, I can see how it would be a struggle for other people who can drive themselves to the park,” Oh said.
While some students believe the policy is not worth carrying out due to the struggle it leaves for parents with transportation, they do also feel that if implemented properly, the policy could help limit the amount of trouble that occurs within the park due to unsupervised kids.
“I understand having more supervision there because so much can happen and go wrong, but I do not think it will work the way that they want it to because if you are causing the problem, you are not going to bring a parent. Therefore, it’s only really impacting people who were not going to do anything wrong,” Rogers said.
Oh agrees with Rogers that the new policy heads toward the right direction in improving the park’s safety, just the way it is implemented could be better to make it more effective against being worked around by people causing trouble in the park.
“I think many people share the opinion that [the new chaperone policy] is pointless,” Rogers said. “It definitely causes scheduling issues and makes it harder for us to be able to go there and have fun.”