One step forward, two steps back

I really think that should be the motto of the teen area at my library, given the history of "incidents" that have happened in the last (almost) two years. Shortly after the teen area opened in 2005 (and before I started working there), a big fight happened in the as yet unsupervised area, the police were called, arrests were made, and some very bad first impressions were formed. A few months later I was hired, hailed as the saviour of the teen area, and tried to start the task of bringing some respect, and good kids, back to the teen area. I started some programs, a teen advsiory board, did some school visits, and put a desk in the teen area. 6 months passed, and there was a custody battle in the teen area involving a dumbass 19 year old who had recently impregnated 2 teen girls who not suprisingly, were ex-best friends. The entire children's area (directly below the teen area, and yes, we all know that is bad planning but we can't change it now), including some small kids, their parents, and a group of mentally disabled adults and their caregivers at a storytime hear all about how this guy wants visitation rights of his fucking kids. They are kicked out, more kids stay away, the principal of a local middle school forbids the kids of his school to come here as it is a "drug-dealing, gang hangout", I start some great new programs, hire an assistant (who quits, but I'm about to hire a cool new one), do more middle school visits, try to convince a bunch of parents that it really is a safe place for their kids, 9 months pass, which brings us to yesterday. Two street kids, one who has been kicked out permanently (but keeps coming back like a bad rash) and another who just finished a short jail stint, start yelling at each other so that all 4 floors (including some seniors, cute little tweens, and a few other kids who will undoubtedly never return) can hear "You fucking rapist, get over here so I can fucking kill you", along with a series of other assorted threats and expletives, for a good 5 minutes (which believe me, is an awful long time) until the security guard came and broke things up and called the police. For anyone who wants to make the argument "all teens are like that", I must disagree with you ... that really cannot be the case. And if it is, teen services worldwide are doomed and will all have to shut down their teen areas before they have even opened. A university library in Melbourne is sounding really good right about now.