School is back in session and with that are children coming of age, dates, proms, sporting events, beer parties, sleep overs, hormones raging; well you get the gist of the yearly theme. Taken individually each of these activities are normal rites of passage and don’t we all have fond memories of our teenage years. The one ingredient in all these fun times that can turn it into tragedy is the alcohol.
Yes, everyone shrugs it off and say’s, “Kids will be kids.” Or “They will drink anyway, so let them do it safely at our house where we can keep an eye on it and confiscate the keys.” In theory it may sound reasonable, but tragedy seems to find a way of showing its ugly face. Have you ever heard of a second set of keys? When you were a teen how many times were you able to sneak out of the house without the parent’s knowing?
Just go to a web browser and put in drunken parties and see all the video’s of what can go wrong. The first page that came up for me was a list of sites of drunk and hot party girls. Think of the discussion when an 11 year old girl asks her mother if the story her friend’s mom told about their drunken antics were true.
How about the story of the high school sport phenom who was cut from his college team and dropped out of college due to becoming a raging teenage alcoholic? Any sport fan can tell you of those stories.
So tragedy doesn’t strike and nobody is killed or maimed for life from a teen alcohol party. But what about the kids who get arrested for underage consumption or possession of beer? Automatically suspended from the team, band or extra-curricular activity. A school suspension, appearance in court resulting in a conviction for a first degree misdemeanor. Perhaps an OVI charge which also carries the same penalty. Along with driver’s license suspensions.
Then of course there is the parent who allowed the party and even was proud of confiscating all the car keys. They also get charged with a first degree misdemeanor and depending on the outcome, will most likely see some jail time. Along with law suits from the parents of the other “Children” who were damaged by the reckless behavior of the parent who took on the role of parent for the evening and allowed illegal activities.
What about the reputation of the girl who can’t handle her first drunk and allows a boy or boys to introduce her to parenthood at the age of 14? Even if it was rape, the parents of the girl will tell her to remain silent so as not to make the situation any worse.
Folks I have seen it, been there wanting to make arrests but parents refusing to allow their child to cooperate. Or the parent who lies for their child so as not to ruin a budding college career. That parent is not doing any proper parenting and what kind of example has the child learned?
Sure I can preach about all this. I have seen it and I don’t have children of my own. What the intent here is not to scare anyone into obeying the law. Just understand that there are consequences, and life is full of them. Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz said it best, “Do the right thing.”
