ATLANTA,None — Arrests and ambulance runs are not what you would associate with teen nightclubs. A Channel 2 Action News Investigation into one suburban nightclub found kids drinking, dancing and partying in a way that would leave most parents appalled.
Teen dance clubs have popped up all across metro Atlanta. Some switch locations from one weekend to the next and hundreds of young teens show up to party, but few are aware of what is really going on inside. After Channel 2 Action News received complaints from parents, WSB-TV decided to launch an undercover investigation into the club.
By day the Sandy Springs Funhouse is an arcade and funhouse, but twice a month it transforms into Club Saturn.
Channel 2 Action News sent two undercover producers, both young women, with cameras into Club Saturn for two dance parties.
The first night Channel 2's undercover producers visited the club, an ambulance pulled up to assist an intoxicated teen. "I got an 18-year-old male, passed out, extremely intoxicated. We need EMS," a Sandy Springs police officer said in a dispatch call.
"It's the most inappropriate behavior I have ever seen in a teen club. Certainly worse than what I have even seen in an adult club," said one undercover producer.
For security purposes only teens 15 to 20 years old are allowed into Club Saturn and ID is required upon entry; however, no one asked the producers for identification on either night.
"I did not expect to see girls half naked walking around with just their bras on. That is something I would expect to see in a strip club not a teen club," said another Channel 2 Action News undercover producer. Their names have been omitted to protect their identities.
"You walk in and it's like descending into a jungle of hormones with kids grinding on each other, rubbing on each other," said Channel 2's producer.
While the behavior on the dance floor appeared very age-inappropriate, even more startling was what they saw in the girls bathroom. Teens ducked inside the stalls to drink booze they sneaked into the club in water bottles, witnessed by the undercover producers.
"A girl was explaining to her friend that she had liquor. I could smell very strongly that there was liquor in the cup. Liquor mixed with some coke," said one Channel 2 producer. "Her friends couldn't really help her because they were also really drunk. They said so."
Producers witnessed empty water bottles on the floor that smelled of liquor.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Regan showed the undercover video to leaders of the Georgia PTA.
"That is not something that I think any mother would want to see their daughter engage and involved in," said Pat Giuliana of the Georgia PTA.
The club's facebook page also posts pictures from the parties at the bottom with the words "indecent exposure."
Regan showed undercover video to Tamara Ancona, founder of TAG Counseling, a counseling group that specializes in teen behavior, "As a parent, anyone should be very concerned that their child would have the freedom to be exposed to something like this," said Ancona.
"Parents who think they are innocently dropping their child off at some arcade or club, if they only knew what went on behind these doors," said Ancona.
"We make every effort possible to make this a safe place and make it good for kids," said David Kopel, owner of the Sandy Springs Funhouse in Sandy Springs.
Kopel told Regan he has a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol and was surprised to hear teens were sneaking it in.
Kopel told Regan two off-duty police officers are on hand, purses are checked and private security monitors the kids. As for codes of conduct, Kopel told Regan, "The way the kids dance today, let's just say they didn't dance like that when I was a kid. If I had my way, kids wouldn't dance like that. I can't stop them really, I won't stop them from expressing themselves in a way that is allowed by law."
As of Thursday morning Kopel said that he plans to discontinue ties with Club Saturn and will no longer lease out his space to the club.
WSBTV
