Oak Park teens and parents urged the Village Board on Nov. 4 to create activities for young people after Halloween crowd concerns drew heavy police response downtown.

Juanta Griffin and her daughter Adeyemi Griffin were the first to speak at the public comment session, the Wednesday Journal reported. Multiple community members attended the meeting to address what has been called the "teen takeover" on Halloween night, when hundreds of teens gathered along Lake Street in downtown Oak Park.

Adeyemi Griffin, a teen who went to Lake Street with friends that night, said they had planned to attend a block party that was shut down by police. She eventually called her mother for a ride because they were "bored."

Adeyemi said there is nothing for teens to do in Oak Park besides staying home or going to parties with friends. "There's really nothing to do," she said, according to the Wednesday Journal.

Adeyemi shared that friends in Hyde Park have a community-organized block party teens can attend, and she called on Oak Park to create something similar. Her mother echoed the point, saying other communities have working models Oak Park could follow.

The gap goes beyond Halloween, Juanta Griffin said. She said most community programming focuses on younger children and that programs like Teens in Motion at the YMCA had been cut.

Trustees stake out positions

Trustees Jim Taglia, Derek Eder and Jenna Leving Jacobson, along with Village Board President Vicki Scaman, all addressed the issue in their closing statements.

Eder said the village may be focused on the wrong problem. He said hiring more police would not solve it, adding that "we're treating all teens like potential criminals and not what they are, kids," according to the Wednesday Journal.

Eder said the village should partner with District 200, the Park District, Oak Park Township and the Oak Park Public Library to give teens activities.

Taglia said he wanted other taxing bodies to share the responsibility. He singled out Oak Park Township, saying its youth and family services division has a budget of about $250,000 a year. Leving Jacobson agreed with Taglia on the Township but said the library has shown the most interest in helping, according to the Wednesday Journal's account.

Scaman said she agreed with the community's sentiment and called for finding the right agencies to lead, saying everyone in the community has a part to play.

Halloween backdrop

The discussion followed a Halloween night that saw a heavy police presence downtown. Oak Park police called on mutual aid from more than a dozen neighboring departments, stretching from Berwyn to the Cook County Sheriff's office, the Wednesday Journal reported Nov. 1. Police said there were no arrests, no damage and no notable incidents.

Separately, a resident was allegedly assaulted by a group of teens in the 500 south alley between Clinton and Kenilworth Avenues. An unidentified Chicago woman was also fatally shot on the 1100 block of Lyman Avenue just after midnight, though police described that incident as stemming from an argument between two people who had attended a Halloween party.

A consultant's after-action report on the 2025 Halloween response, obtained by the Wednesday Journal through a public records request, found that Oak Park police showed "restraint in the use of force" but "could have engaged in better planning."

The Wednesday Journal's account of the Nov. 4 meeting did not report any formal vote or directive on teen programming.