High School Youths Want 'Thing' Place

Ann Arbor Pioneer High School students who met with Mayor Robert J. Harris yesterday afternoon listed as one of their major concerns the obtaining "of a place of our own, where we can do our own thing." The mayor met with some 30 students at Pioneer High's Little Theatre for about an hour. A similar meeting will be held with Huron High School students at 3:10 p.m. Monday. Students yesterday said they had been forced to leave places which are normally used by college students, such as the Canterbury House. "The college students want to be quiet and study, but we want to make noise," one student said. He continued by saying the youths want a place of their owñ where they don't have to conform to someone else's rules. "How do those rules differ f rom y our own," the mayor asked. "It's not much that they differ, it's just that we can't make our own rules if we want io," the student responded. ; Harris asked what the youths would contribute if the city or I someone would provide "a I place of your own," asking if I they would be interested in I beautification projects or I lar work as part of the "deal." I The student said, "Certainly, it's a possibility, it doesn't sound too bad . . It would be I nice, we could have a place of I our own." The mayor asked if the city would have a drug problem in such a facility. "We talked it over, and to keep the pólice off of us we decided we would have I a house rule to keep drugs out," the student responded. Asked about the recommendations concerning youth in the "Faber Report," Harris said drop-in centers appear to be a good idea but he hadn't decided as yet whether it would be a good idea to have a "people's park" complete with "soap boxes." He said he was skeptical that such a place for youth would aid in preventing another incident such as last summers' S. University confrontation. "If the roots of youth alienation go as deep as it appears, I feel there is little that can be done by city government to change this sense of alienation in young people," Harris said.