<p>What do YOU think?</p>
<p><a href=“http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/051607/loc_20070516113.shtml[/url]”>http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/051607/loc_20070516113.shtml</a></p>
<p>I hope the suspensions go on the transcripts sent with their college apps.</p>
<p>Those parents should quit whining and accept that their kids were drinking and have to face their consequences. In this day and age to somehow not know that schools are not checking for that is nuts.</p>
<p>All of our county schools deny any participation in sports or after school events unless kids and parents sign off on permission for random drug and alcohol testing. Names are drawn at random throughout the year, and even at the prom, many kids were chosen at random as they came in the door (like 1 in 15/20).</p>
<p>Parents are complaining that their kids got suspended? They got off lightly!!! In my school they would have been expelled…and anyway the parents should be thankful that the kids didn’t get hurt in some sort of car accident.</p>
<p>I am so glad to know that others feel the way I do about this!</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters. Additionally, I’d permanently revoke any driving privileges for any family owned vehicle, and delete them from the policy. </p>
<p>They could drive again when they were able to acquire their own vehicle and pay for their own insurance.</p>
<p>I agree with all the posters so far, too.</p>
<p>Amen Violadad. Definitely no driving privileges - and we have made darn sure that our own kids understand that these ARE privileges. They have to look at the insurance bills and add up the gas and car payments so they understand that driving is NOT a game and cars ARE NOT toys!</p>
<p>Those parents are from the “Not My Little Angel Club”. One day their kids may get a wake-up call that mommy and daddy can’t get them out of.</p>
<p>Diane Elliot wants to know why her son was singled out for the Breathalyzer, and feels that everyone at prom should have had to undergo it!! Ridiculous!!</p>
<p>Absolutely they should be suspended. I doubt that any school actually expels you for this though? There was drinking at our HS hockey game and 6 girls were supended.</p>
<p>It does not actually say that these kids drove to prom, so it is possible that they arrived in a limousine. Interestingly enough,
</p>
<p>Yeah but kids drive around after prom for afterparties and stuff…that was why I thought it was damn lucky they didn’t get hurt.</p>
<p>Our state math and science HS has policies about giving Breathalyzers and even taking the kids to the doctor for a drug test without parental consent if the staff suspect something is up. (It’s a residential high school, so they can do things regular public schools can’t). </p>
<p>One infraction goes on the transcript; two is expulsion (one if the infraction was drugs). Incredibly, some kids, after working very hard to get into the school, still break the rules and get sent home. Teenagers just don’t assess risk very well. They never think that they’re going to get caught (much less that anything worse will happen like an accident or alcohol poisoning). </p>
<p>The Breathalyzer policy is explained at orientation, so parents at least have the opportunity to try to get their kids to face the reality that they will get caught–even if the kid shrugs off the idea that anything else bad will happen. Obviously, this doesn’t make any difference to some kids, but at least their folks know that they had the opportunity to make the argument.</p>
<p>This is where I think the parents in the prom article are coming from, that they didn’t get this opportunity and believe (however unrealistically) that it might have made a difference in whether their kid broke the rules. I think in the long run, the school will be served better by letting the parents know the policy upfront. Even if parents reinforcing the consequences of getting caught only stops 1 in 10 kids who might be tempted to drink, it’s worth it.</p>
<p>Students were busted at a local high school prom here in the San Diego area. Students who either smelled like alcohol or “displayed awkward behavior” were given a breathalyzer test (isn’t most teenage behavior awkward?). 5 day suspension, can’t go to any dances in the next grading period, etc. as punishment.</p>
<p><a href=“North County”>North County;
<p>Nothing would curtail high school drinking quicker than students, parents, and high schools believing that drinking will negatively impact elite college admissions.</p>
<p>As an added bonus, the colleges might actually be able to put a dent in their own student drunkenness problems if they admit fewer high school drunks.</p>
<p>I’m curious about that too…if the people who drink heavily in college really start there or if they bring the behavior up there with them. I know people my own age who were heavy drinkers in high school and to this day their families insist they only started drinking when they joined a fraternity.</p>
<p>gee, maybe the students were signaled out becuase they were drunk, and it showed, what a thought?</p>
<p>true the school should have reminded the parents of the law, but ignorance of the law regarding underage drinking is not an excuse</p>
<p>too bad the mom didn’t say, my son was an idiot and I am p@)$(#d</p>
<p>ah well, at my Ds school, they would graduate, but no walk, no nothing, and if they got suspended, zeros for any grades they got there after, including finals</p>
<p>Conyat:</p>
<p>The Harvard College Alcohol Studies have shown a correlation between high school binge drinking and college binge drinking.</p>
<p>Specifically, about 23% of American college students are “frequent binge drinkers” – 5 or more drinks in one sitting at least three times in the prior two weeks. This is really the category that is causing problems on campus.</p>
<p>College students who did not binge drink in high school are “frequent binge drinkers” in college at half the national average (12.2%).</p>
<p>College students who did binge drink in high school are “frequent binge drinkers” in college at double the national average (46.7%).</p>
<p>Thus, high school binge drinkers are nearly four times more likely to be “frequent binge drinkers” in college than students who did not binge drink in high school. That’s pretty dramatic. </p>
<p>It’s one of the reasons that I believe admissions has to play a role in reducing frequent binge drinking by enrolling fewer drunks. A good place to start would be to have parents, high schools, and admissions offices stop sweeping it under the rug. Make it clear that drinking violations in high school will negatively impact elite college admissions.</p>
<p>Or maybe the opposite, when a school wants to ensure its “work hard/play hard” reputation. ;)</p>
<p>And more than half of those “frequent binge drinkers” in college will, at some point, become alcoholics (“alcohol-dependent”), if they aren’t so already.</p>
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<p>I think both. Some parents keep their kids under a tight rein at home. But once the kids go to college and aren’t under the parental thumb, some do break out and do wild a crazy things.</p>
<p>Roughly 20 students at my daughter’s school who were intoxicated at prom were suspended.</p>
<p>A few of these students were IB diploma candidates who may not have been finished with their IB exams at the time when they were suspended. Nobody seems to be sure whether they were allowed to take their remaining exams. If not, they will not obtain their IB diplomas – which seems a bit unfair to me, not because such a serious punishment is unwarranted but because the non-IB students did not face a similarly serious punishment.</p>
<p>which seems a bit unfair to me, not because such a serious punishment is unwarranted but because the non-IB students did not face a similarly serious punishment.</p>
<p>that does seem unfair- but I am not familiar with IB to know if that is a guideline re behavior</p>
<p>I don’t think Ds school has a huge issue at prom- but I remember two years ago- at the graduation party ( where students and parents sign a form agreeing that students either have to return on the bus or be picked by a parent, no one will be allowed to leave on their own), when a couple girls became enraged because they weren’t allowed to leave.They ripped a payphone off the wall of the venue, then were made to stay in teh bus which they trashed. Their parents were also angry after the fact, that their daughters weren’t allowed to leave-(they had called friends to get them, not parents) even though they had signed something agreeing that they couldn’t leave on their own.
Since the girls were graduated, the school/district was liable for the damage costs.</p>