I’m all for turning the legal drinking age back to 18, but until that happens its silly for students and their parents not to think there are legal and health risks involved in such large gatherings.
Students do get hurt. There are examples of such things happening, unfortunately. A lot of relatively inexperienced drinkers and overconsumption by some.
The odds of getting busted are pretty high as proven by the multiple incidents that have been busted. It’s hard to keep a party of 75+ students on the down low due to noise, traffic, etc.
The press will and does jump all over it. Boarding school scandals always make excellent fodder for the media.
Parents, if involved as in the SPS case and others, do face legal consequences that are very damaging, as do the students charged.
Plastering photos online advertising the fact you are breaking the law is really naive.
Underage drinking in high school, post grad, and in college definitely exists and isn’t going away. These post grad parties amp up the risk factors as outlined above and open one up to many more potential consequences than throwing a few beers back with some buddies. Proceed at your own risk.
“these kids busted their butts and had crazy pressure bottled up because they couldn’t risk risky behavior before this” @SoapyMango - I have a hard time believing that this post grad party is the first time most of these students have engaged in underage drinking or partying of some kind. BS students don’t have a monopoly on stress during their teen years. I’m not naive that such things go on and have a realistic perspective on it, but let’s not misrepresent what is really going on. It’s another opportunity/excuse to party and yes, celebrate graduation - no more no less. 