HS Party with Alcohol... Death

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How have these kids gotten by without hitting the headlines until now? No detention center lock-ups?

Hope you are being sarcastic. Drinking and partying is not out of the norm for high school seniors. Not all do it, but it is not uncommon. Kids tweet about this stuff at almost all of the high schools. And even more teens are doing it and not tweeting about it.

I think about this all the time. My group of close girlfriends and I were the sort of "middle" kids. Some of us played varsity sports but we were also kind of the middle ground-nerd-good kids who just kind of hung out at each other's houses or went for ice cream or to dinner at the local pizza places and stuff together instead of partying because none of our parents would have let us just "go out". Even WE started drinking a little bit at smaller parties and gatherings of friends (and some nights a lot) around April or May of senior year sort of mixed in with our regular hangout activities.

The "good" kids, with the early curfews, who were all still virgins and barely dated and no where near the kind of fearlessness to do anything all that crazy at all. Its everywhere.

+100 The smug and judgmental attitudes about these kids (who presumably the majority of posters don't even know) are revolting and inappropriate.

There but for the grace of god goes your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How have these kids gotten by without hitting the headlines until now? No detention center lock-ups?

Hope you are being sarcastic. Drinking and partying is not out of the norm for high school seniors. Not all do it, but it is not uncommon. Kids tweet about this stuff at almost all of the high schools. And even more teens are doing it and not tweeting about it.

I think about this all the time. My group of close girlfriends and I were the sort of "middle" kids. Some of us played varsity sports but we were also kind of the middle ground-nerd-good kids who just kind of hung out at each other's houses or went for ice cream or to dinner at the local pizza places and stuff together instead of partying because none of our parents would have let us just "go out". Even WE started drinking a little bit at smaller parties and gatherings of friends (and some nights a lot) around April or May of senior year sort of mixed in with our regular hangout activities.

The "good" kids, with the early curfews, who were all still virgins and barely dated and no where near the kind of fearlessness to do anything all that crazy at all. Its everywhere.

+100 The smug and judgmental attitudes about these kids (who presumably the majority of posters don't even know) are revolting and inappropriate.

Another +100 here

[Anonymous]

I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

I think they do. I think several people posting here are in Wootton cluster and are really mad about a subculture of drinking and drugging, and most about the parents who purposefully look the other way as long as grades are good. I know I am. I know "many" Wootton parents who are militant about no drugs or alcohol. And many who enable. And many others who just don't have a clue, even though they could if they tried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

I think they do. I think several people posting here are in Wootton cluster and are really mad about a subculture of drinking and drugging, and most about the parents who purposefully look the other way as long as grades are good. I know I am. I know "many" Wootton parents who are militant about no drugs or alcohol. And many who enable. And many others who just don't have a clue, even though they could if they tried.

The biggest question I have is why the parents of the teens at the party aren't encouraging their kids to come forward to investigators with information. It sounds like it was a big party and the parents must have a sense of of their kids were in attendance. As one of the victim's families resides in my community, I do want to be respectful of the need for everyone to grieve but I am concerned about the clamming up of those involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

I think they do. I think several people posting here are in Wootton cluster and are really mad about a subculture of drinking and drugging, and most about the parents who purposefully look the other way as long as grades are good. I know I am. I know "many" Wootton parents who are militant about no drugs or alcohol. And many who enable. And many others who just don't have a clue, even though they could if they tried.

This issue isn't isolated to a single school or area. It is pervasive nationwide. It always has, it always will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

I think they do. I think several people posting here are in Wootton cluster and are really mad about a subculture of drinking and drugging, and most about the parents who purposefully look the other way as long as grades are good. I know I am. I know "many" Wootton parents who are militant about no drugs or alcohol. And many who enable. And many others who just don't have a clue, even though they could if they tried.

This issue isn't isolated to a single school or area. It is pervasive nationwide. It always has, it always will.

Maybe. It's different to me because i grew up poor and understood the drugs and alcohol culture there in school. Now i'm in a rich area where all the parents throw money at the kids. So much easier to get stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

I think they do. I think several people posting here are in Wootton cluster and are really mad about a subculture of drinking and drugging, and most about the parents who purposefully look the other way as long as grades are good. I know I am. I know "many" Wootton parents who are militant about no drugs or alcohol. And many who enable. And many others who just don't have a clue, even though they could if they tried.

This issue isn't isolated to a single school or area. It is pervasive nationwide. It always has, it always will.

Maybe. It's different to me because i grew up poor and understood the drugs and alcohol culture there in school. Now i'm in a rich area where all the parents throw money at the kids. So much easier to get stuff.

I grew up solid middle class and the biggest HS weekend parties were often at the nicest houses. But I knew plenty of stoners and heavy drinkers in our neighborhood and also the kids in the trailers. Drugs and alcohol were present on every side of the tracks. No different now.

[Anonymous]

Alcohol and marijuana use are more prevalent in high income neighborhoods. Neighborhood income matters more than individual income.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1974881/

[Anonymous]

I grew up without ever watching/reading/hearing anything about crashes like this - yet I never got drunk and would never be in a moving car without a seat belt on. The only thing my parents needed to do was make the rules very clear, be very strict with them, state clearly what happens to people who get wasted or don't wear seat belts during accidents and keep me away from kids who would drink or think not wearing seat belts was cool.

This is ALL about parents not parenting well. I grew up with a legal drinking age of 16 for light alcohol like beer and 18 for anything else. There was no such accident as this one or the many others where I grew up. Ever. If parents parent well teens can drink responsibly without getting drunk (even though personally I prefer a legal drinking age of 18 to 16 I also believe a huge reason for teenage over-drinking IS the fact that legal drinking age is 21. It is SO forbidden for SO long that teens just go overboard behind their parents back). And they can drink without ever getting near a car. And they will wear seat belts when they are in a car. It is ALL about parenting. Nothing else.

[Anonymous]

I went to HS in MoCo in the 90s. My friends and I drank at parties, parks, friends houses, etc. We never drove -it was widely known the driver didn't have a drop when we went out, and they never did.

Speaking for myself, I drank but my parents told me not to. They also gave me a midnight curfew and stayed up until I got home. If I were to come home and they thought I was drinking I would have been in serious trouble (grounded, car taken away, no phone or tv use) So I did do it but I never got stupid drunk and never drove because I was more scared of my parents than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up without ever watching/reading/hearing anything about crashes like this - yet I never got drunk and would never be in a moving car without a seat belt on. The only thing my parents needed to do was make the rules very clear, be very strict with them, state clearly what happens to people who get wasted or don't wear seat belts during accidents and keep me away from kids who would drink or think not wearing seat belts was cool.

This is ALL about parents not parenting well. I grew up with a legal drinking age of 16 for light alcohol like beer and 18 for anything else. There was no such accident as this one or the many others where I grew up. Ever. If parents parent well teens can drink responsibly without getting drunk (even though personally I prefer a legal drinking age of 18 to 16 I also believe a huge reason for teenage over-drinking IS the fact that legal drinking age is 21. It is SO forbidden for SO long that teens just go overboard behind their parents back). And they can drink without ever getting near a car. And they will wear seat belts when they are in a car. It is ALL about parenting. Nothing else.

This is totally wrong. The outside influences change as kids get older, so many other factors go in to why kids drink and drug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up without ever watching/reading/hearing anything about crashes like this - yet I never got drunk and would never be in a moving car without a seat belt on. The only thing my parents needed to do was make the rules very clear, be very strict with them, state clearly what happens to people who get wasted or don't wear seat belts during accidents and keep me away from kids who would drink or think not wearing seat belts was cool.

This is ALL about parents not parenting well. I grew up with a legal drinking age of 16 for light alcohol like beer and 18 for anything else. There was no such accident as this one or the many others where I grew up. Ever. If parents parent well teens can drink responsibly without getting drunk (even though personally I prefer a legal drinking age of 18 to 16 I also believe a huge reason for teenage over-drinking IS the fact that legal drinking age is 21. It is SO forbidden for SO long that teens just go overboard behind their parents back). And they can drink without ever getting near a car. And they will wear seat belts when they are in a car. It is ALL about parenting. Nothing else.

If only it were that simple. Just because it worked for *you* doesn't mean it works for all kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a feeling that many of the PPs with strong opinions don't have teens yet.

I think they do. I think several people posting here are in Wootton cluster and are really mad about a subculture of drinking and drugging, and most about the parents who purposefully look the other way as long as grades are good. I know I am. I know "many" Wootton parents who are militant about no drugs or alcohol. And many who enable. And many others who just don't have a clue, even though they could if they tried.

The biggest question I have is why the parents of the teens at the party aren't encouraging their kids to come forward to investigators with information. It sounds like it was a big party and the parents must have a sense of of their kids were in attendance. As one of the victim's families resides in my community, I do want to be respectful of the need for everyone to grieve but I am concerned about the clamming up of those involved.

Speaking the TRUTH may even HELP the grieving process. NOT speaking the TRUTH to the authorities is a HORRIFIC reflection on the families involved, and on their school.

[Anonymous]

Geez, the judgements posted here. I happen to know one of the parents of one of the dead kids. Nicest person in the world. Made sure to be home in time from work to help raise the kids. Solid, good human, who valued their kids and worked hard for them. These stupid judgments about people you don't know is bullshit. Be careful casting stuff like that, you never know when it might come right back to you.