Girl Scouts Say They Were Not Prepared for Mall Reception : Northridge: Van Nuys troop members contend a guard suspected they were gang members and asked them to leave. Center officials dispute the accusations.

Members of a Van Nuys-based Girl Scout troop say a group shopping trip to the Northridge Fashion Center went sour this week because a security guard feared they might be gang members and told them to leave.

The 25 teen-agers from Troop 823 were accompanied by six adults when the security guard, Sgt. Gilbert Alvarez, saw one member of the group run in front of a moving car in the parking lot, causing it to slam on its brakes. When Alvarez approached the boisterous group to investigate, he became concerned that they might disrupt shoppers, a mall official said.

After a heated exchange between the guard and troop leader Lois Young, during which she said she was told the girls were being kept out of the mall because they appeared to be gang members, the girls were allowed to remain and shop.

But the girls, most of whom were wearing Scouting blouses, were required to stay in groups of three separated by several feet.

Alvarez’s “attitude . . . basically was . . . we were trying to do something that we shouldn’t have been doing,” said Elizabeth Martin, 16, one of the Scouts. She said several plainclothes officers and uniformed guards monitored the group’s movements while they were in the mall.

“If that’s the way they are going to treat us, then obviously we are not going back,” she said.

But mall officials disputed the Scouts’ version of events.

Marianne Shannon, a mall spokeswoman, said Alvarez acted properly, that he did not say anything to the Scouts or their leaders about gangs or try to make them leave, and that he was attempting to quiet the girls “who were already inside the mall and behaving in a loud and boisterous manner.”

She said some of the girls were wearing Halloween costumes and had their faces painted, which attracted the security guard’s attention. But Martin and her mother, Linda, said the girls were not in costume but some were wearing shower caps as part of an initiation joke.

Shannon said the mall’s policy regarding large groups “is formulated to provide a safe and convenient environment for all who wish to visit.” She said the policy applied to “any group that is going to be out of hand” and could be invoked for crowds as small as three people.

Young referred questions to the San Fernando Valley Girl Scout Council. Representatives of the 12,100-member council characterized the incident as a misunderstanding between a trusted troop leader with 16 years of experience and a security guard who became concerned about an enthusiastic group of Scouts on an outing.

“It’s unfortunate they could not distinguish between what was a gang and a Girl Scout troop,” said Robert Dyer, executive director of the council. He said a “formal apology would be very nice” but was not necessary.

Asked whether the Scouts deserved an apology, Shannon referred to a prepared statement that said the mall regretted the misunderstanding.