A tragic story to discuss with your children

Parent Cafe
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<p>To me, it seems that the school system had done what it could to keep the students from drinking and driving after prom. In addition to showing students a film about the consequences of drunk driving, the school took prom participants on a post prom boat ride that ended just before 4 a.m., and had Breathalyzed them before prom. Still, some students drank – and drank very excessively at that. </p>

<p>I particularly find the quote disturbing that’s from the driver’s date, who indicated that becoming a drunk driver who killed someone could have happened to almost anyone at prom. </p>

<p>"A Saugus High School senior allegedly downed 10 beers before fatally striking a 67-year-old pedestrian in a horrific post-prom crash - and admitted at the scene that he “should not have been driving after he had been drinking,” a prosecutor said yesterday.</p>

<p>As his mother hung her head and sobbed, an unemotional Jonathan Caruso, 18, pleaded not guilty in Lynn District Court to motor vehicle homicide and other charges in the tragic crash that killed Carol Marean and seriously injured her daughter, Charlotte, 41, during their ritual Saturday morning dog walk.</p>

<p>Police arrived at about 7:30 a.m. to find Caruso’s smashed Chevy Cavalier with four beers in the trunk, said prosecutor Christina Ronan. A despondent Caruso was lying with his head in Rosa Palomba’s lap. A passenger in the car, Palomba, 18, was screaming, “We killed that person!” according to officer Matthew S. Donahue’s report. Charlotte Marean was “screaming and crying in pain.”…</p>

<p>Caruso’s date, Courtney Faysal, told NECN-TV: “Everyone is making him out to be a monster. This could have happened to anybody, 80 percent of the kids who went to prom went out right after. It just happened to be Johnny.”"</p>

<p>[Cops:</a> Driver admitted he drank 10 beers - BostonHerald.com](<a href=“http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1173219]Cops:”>http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1173219)</p>

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<p>Our school does not allow limos or private cars at the prom. The kids get dropped off at the school. Lots of photo ops. Then buses (think nice ones) take them to the event. On the way home the buses weave through the tiny village streets dropping kids off.</p>

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<p>kayf, not sure how I feel about that. Basically your school is providing designated drivers for underage kids. On the one hand it prevents a tragedy as above, on the other hand is it encouraging underage drinking?</p>

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<p>There is no liquor allowed on the buses. The buses are checked. The kids are checked. It is a way to control drinking as well as driving.</p>

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<p>My son and his friends engaged a small bus to take them to prom. As many of them are athletes, they searched the bus before getting on and found 1 beer somewhere in the back. If that one beer had been found by someone associated with the school at the prom location, they all would have been disqualified from competing in the upcoming district and state meets.</p>

<p>I think a bus is a great idea!</p>

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<p>I like the post from kayf because there are two issues.</p>

<ol>
<li> drinking</li>
<li> drinking and driving.</li>
</ol>

<p>If we spend time taking kids to task for underage drinking we will dilute the message that they shouldn’t drink and drive. I don’t want my teenage daughter to drink but I am far more concerned about her drinking and then driving or being in a car with someone who has been drinking. The kid from the original story’s life has been changed forever because he didn’t consider beforehand that if he was going to drink then he shouldn’t drive. I like what kayf’s school is doing because they are modeling designated drivers.</p>

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<p><<this could=“” have=“” happened=“” to=“” anybody=“”>></this></p>

<p>Actually, it could ONLY happen to someone who was drinking and driving, not ‘anyone’, because alot of ‘anyones’ are smarter than that.</p>

<p>time to stop excusing immoral and illegal behavior. I have 0 sympathy for people who commit murder when they drink and drive.</p>

<p>NO I HAVE NEVER DRIVEN under the influence, so I can’t say "so but for the grace of God, it could have been me’</p>

8

<p>Thanks, NSM-- have emailed this to S2. Am waiting to hear about any after-prom plans at our school. How many lives are ruined because some people arrogantly and stupidly think they deserve to do whatever the h*ll they want in the name of a good time?</p>

9

<p>Really repulsive, as a student. Is it so hard to sleep off your drunken stupor, or get a DD? Throw the book at him.</p>

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<p>I need to get out more. I’m in my twenties; I shouldn’t be reading “DD” as “darling daughter”…</p>

11

<p>I’ve recently had a frank discussion with Lake Jr. about alcohol. It’s high time we remove the mystique of alcohol consumption from the teenage mind. I’d guess that a lot of young binge drinkers don’t even enjoy the taste of alcohol. I’ve told junior not to invest in the silly dea that getting drunk is fun. Obviously, it’s dangerous.</p>

12

<p>In other stories about the tragedy, I learned that the women who were hit were an elderly woman and her middle aged daughter who were walking their dog. After the car hit them, all of the teens jumped out of their car and literally ran past the woman who was dying and her daughter who was injured.</p>

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<p>I don’t understand why the urge to save one’s reputation seems to so fundamentally trump the urge to save a person’s life. That seems so incredibly against what my gut instinct is… I’m one of those people who rescue little old ladies after they drive into ditches, and helps panicking kiddos down escalators to their mommies, though…</p>

<p>Why would a person run past another person in dire need of help? Why would <em>all</em> of those people run past another person in dire need of help? I don’t get it at all.</p>

14

<p>Last year my son and about 30 friends rented a bus and the private bus was very strict on behavior. At my daughter’s prom, she and a bunch of friends rented a huge limo. Because we live in a large city, to me the issue is more than drinking. The prom is usually quite a ways from the home school and in unfamiliar territory and the kids are not experienced drivers. Add to that the excitement and having a bunch of kids in the car – that is already a recipe for an accident without any alcohol.</p>

15

<p>Unfortunately it is the afterprom parties when all the drinking begins…so the schools are no longer involved. The kids leave the prom…many sober… and then meet up at a designated house and take limos/ buses to afterprom parties/ clubs/ hotels. For senior prom it often involves an overnight or two at a beach location. A lot of times the kids bring their cars to their destination so they can drive home and us it on their mini vacation. It is, of course, a formula for disaster. Although drinking and driving seems to be controlled because most kids use limos, there are many cases of kids literally falling out of the limos drunks as they arrive at their party destination. Last year, 2 kids were arrested for possession of drugs. The list of infractions goes on. Parents seems to go along with it because they want their kids included and don’t want to be the mean parent who says no. As they say…it takes a whole village…</p>

16

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<p>Last year I fell off my bike and people walked right by me. Fortunately, I wasn’t badly hurt (and no, I wasn’t drunk), or I’d still be lying there. Sorry to go OT.</p>

<p>Kids these days are literally crazy about drinking and other forms of self obliteration. Even though I commend the attempts of the school to try to curb drinking at the prom, it’s too little too late. The horse is long gone from the barn by the time they’re seniors.</p>

17

<p>This has been all over the news here in MA since it happened the other day. The girl who was his prom date was not in the car - he had dropped her off at home around 4:30 AM and the accident happened after 7:00 AM. She “swears” that he had not been drinking all night, which makes it even more disturbing that in the space of less than 3 hours - he consumed 10 beers…</p>

<p>Throw the book at him, lock him up, and throw away the key…(harsh, I know, but this is getting ridiculous how easily people are getting off from DUI charges)</p>