Brother Suspended, Need Advice!

sybbie719
Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:13:45 +0000

This week’s edition of The Mirror is dedicated to being Parkhursted (Dartmouth speak for being suspended).

In the article:

What not to do: advice from the parkhursted
Four students share what they did – from Vespa destruction to BB gun sniping – and what they learned



One junior, who wishes to remain anonymous, felt the one-term suspension he received for a DUI during his sophomore summer actually helped him to reevaluate his situation. “I’d spent two years moving progressively further down the road of substance abuse. I was blacking out at least weekly, hurting myself when drunk. [During the term off] I got a handle on myself and on the issues that were causing me to drink so much in the first place,” he said. The student used his time off at home to think about his life, and heal himself. “I’ve got a plan for life now and am not the aimless drifter I kind of was for a while,” he said. “Everyone’s different, but I’m really glad I went home. It helped me rebuild some of the trust that I’d broken with the family.”



Personally I think that his parents are either living in denial or enablers by setting him up in his own apartment and paying for him to attend classes because it sends a message at least to me that they are still “rewarding” bad behavior. Anyhow, whether OP’s brother has a drinking problem or the victim of dumb luck, I hope that he does take the time to reflect on what has happened and look at it as a teachable moment to do things differently.