<p>High SAT scores are not an indication of common sense.</p>
<p>I agree that the people who were taken to the hospital are at least partially responsible for their actions. You can say it was social pressure all you want, but these kids should have known their limits and known how to say “no.”</p>
<p>“at least partially responsible for their actions.”</p>
<p>I agree, if by “partially” you mean “ten thousand percent.”</p>
<p>Two beers can be devastating on someone who has never had alcohol in his/her life!</p>
<p>Can you imagine that in this country of ours one can be a father/mother legally and still not be able to taste any alcohol legally? Even though the beer here is about 60% strenght of a european one???
My kids are getting diluted wine with dinner. One of the steps of getting ready for college :)</p>
<p>Hanna- I only hesistated to say that much fault only because I’m part of a fraternity and if we get caught hazing, our entire executive board can be charged with felonies. It’s very serious here in Florida, and we would never force any pledges to do any activity, but I can see how other fraternities could get charged even when something is optional. It can be easily twisted.</p>
<p>Kelowna- That was one of the best things my parents did for me. They didn’t do it illegally, as we waited until a cruise, but once we got to Mexico I was able to have a few beers and some other beverages to experience a “buzz” before I got to school. Very worthwhile, and it made me more aware of how to drink responsibly.</p>
<p>^^ exactly. You should experience “the buzz” in familiar sorroundings.</p>
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<p>BS.</p>
<p>Blood alcohol levels are a physical thing. Dangerous BAC levels require consuming x amount of alcohol in y amount of time. Kids are not being transported to hospital emergency rooms with 0.08% BACs.</p>
<p>erhswimming, I know that the fraternities can suffer legal liability. But in my opinion, that doesn’t absolve an adult of complete moral responsibility for his own actions. The law makes “tavern keepers” (which can include fraternities) liable primarily for reasons of public health.</p>
<p>This is very helpful information. My niece used this as part of her alcohol ed unit her freshman year: </p>
<p>[Blood</a> Alcohol Content Calculator - The Police Notebook](<a href=“http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm]Blood”>http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm)</p>
<p>interesteddad, you make a good point…not commonly understood, even by adults…</p>
<p>
Well, I think that drug pushers have guilt as well as their customers–this is also true of persons who give alchohol to persons who are underage, which must be true of most of these college students.</p>
<p>I think the drinking age should be lowered to 18. Kids can vote and go to war at `8. IMO lowering the drinking age would eliminate much of the binge drinking.</p>
<p>I think they should bill the eating club for the total cost of the transport and hospitalization for every student under 21 transported – except that it would act as a deterrent against individuals making the calls that could save the student’s life.</p>
<p>“When kids show sign of being seriously drunk, off they are sent to a medical situation by their peers. And they get sent off quite readily. At many many campuses across the country kids way drunker than these Princeton students are just left to vomit in the stairwell.”</p>
<p>There is no way to put a good spin on it. They weren’t just “sent off quite readily”. 13 were hospitalized!</p>
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<p>On the weekends, H and I used to take long walks around the area where we lived in CT. It is very hilly, heavily wooded, houses scattered in comparison to the “subdivision” feel. When the drinking age changed from 18 to 21, we immediately started finding bags and boxes full of beer bottles in the woods along the edge of the road. It was obvious that the age change only resulted in kids driving around in cars drinking, since they were no longer able to do so in public.</p>
<p>I was 18 when the drinking age was originally changed to 18. Drinking and driving was something we NEVER did. (Yes, of course I’m sure there were some fools who did so, but fewer than when it became illegal to have a beer in your living room or get a pitcher to split among 5 people with a pizza.)</p>
<p>Not an improvement, IMHO.</p>
<p>The data actually show a vast improvement in the number of youth drinking, the percentage of those bingeing, drinking-and-driving accidents, and fatalities. It was, in fact, been one of the most effective public health measures of the 20th century. </p>
<p>There may be reasons to consider changing the age, but lack of improvement isn’t one of them.</p>
<p>Mini,</p>
<p>What data? Or is it just the smarter kids wont admit to doing anything illegal? And their parents make certain any hospital incidents are kept quiet as best they can.</p>
<p>We have turned a medical and physcological problem into a legal problem, which makes kids LESS likely to ask for help when needed. </p>
<p>Years ago, there was a bar in my little town that catered to young adults. It had live music. It also had an adult bartender, bouncer etc. If anyone got loaded, they called a cab. Actually cabs were usually lined up there sat nights. It was in a retail/commerical area, not next to anyones house.</p>
<p>Kids still drink and listen to music – it is just more dangerous</p>
<p>“I think that drug pushers have guilt as well as their customers”</p>
<p>It is not inconsistent for the adult customers to be 100% responsible for their own bad behavior and for the drug pusher to be 100% responsible for his.</p>
<p>“What data?”</p>
<p>We have 32 years’ worth of data on drinking, heavy drinking, and bingeing among U.S. youth from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future Survey - [Welcome</a> to the MTF Website](<a href=“http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/]Welcome”>http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/) You can check it out yourself.</p>
<p>As for drinking and driving fatalities, we not only have national “before and after” data related to the drinking age, but continguous state and community studies, as states changed their drinking ages in different years. The data are pretty overwhelming.</p>
<p>mini – I am sorry, which chart/table are you relying on. Most on the website appear to rely on surveys, ie self reported data. My D, even though she is not going to ivy, knows enough not to admit to ever ever doing anything illegal.</p>
<p>tone ranger, the only halfway decent college without a drinking problem is BYU.</p>
<p>^^ Emphasis on “halfway”. Liberty University probably doesn’t have a drinking problem. Neither were on my kids’ radar…</p>