Hoping these kids are OK

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A carpool for early morning swim practice occurred to me too. Perhaps only the driver was impaired?

Alcohol after early morning swim practice? What?

The passengers weren't wearing seatbelts, which to me suggests some level of impairment.

When I was a teenager back in the mean old 80s, very few of my classmates wore seatbelts voluntarily. I was a bit of a nerd about it, always have been since the PSAs of the 80s about seatbelts - I drove my whole family crazy until nobody even tried to drive me anywhere without a belt on.

I think you must be out of touch because it is still very commonplace for young people to eschew seatbelts. It is reflective of some kind of impairment, but not necessarily alcohol or drugs. Too many kids just can't make the connection that they are mortal and breakable.

Not really. Most teens wear seatbelts. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but the teens I'm around wear them. I know two who don't.

Most teens normally wear seatbelts. Teens that are drunk and cruising around at 5am on a school day are probably in the less likely cohort.

There were also 4 kids in the back seat so not enough seatbelts even if they wanted to wear one.
Driver was smart enough to wear a seatbelt but not smart enough to not drink and drive or speed.

It was an SUV with a second row of benches. You can see it from the images on the NBC website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did Marshall actually send out an email? We usually get Marshall emails b/c our McLean kid has a class there and we didn't get anything from Marshall.

I was under the impression this was just McLean and Longfellow kids

The emails that went to McLean and Longfellow both said one kid from our school and six from other schools. So not necessarily McLean but there were definitely kids from a 3rd school involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did Marshall actually send out an email? We usually get Marshall emails b/c our McLean kid has a class there and we didn't get anything from Marshall.

I was under the impression this was just McLean and Longfellow kids

The emails that went to McLean and Longfellow both said one kid from our school and six from other schools. So not necessarily McLean but there were definitely kids from a 3rd school involved.

An email was sent to Marshall staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:14 to 17 is only two years apart in school. Freshman to Junior.

Many seniors are 17. All of my kids were still 17 in November of their senior year of high school.

14 year old was an old 8th grader (likely turned 14 in October or November, or has an earlier birthday and was "redshirted"). My 7th grader has a few friends that are 13 but most are still 12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren’t ok. They were thrown from a car.

Teens are resilient. I also hope they are ok or will recover.

The driver is going to jail for a long time

Nope judges in VA and MD give them like a year it’s horrific

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A carpool for early morning swim practice occurred to me too. Perhaps only the driver was impaired?

Alcohol after early morning swim practice? What?

The passengers weren't wearing seatbelts, which to me suggests some level of impairment.

When I was a teenager back in the mean old 80s, very few of my classmates wore seatbelts voluntarily. I was a bit of a nerd about it, always have been since the PSAs of the 80s about seatbelts - I drove my whole family crazy until nobody even tried to drive me anywhere without a belt on.

I think you must be out of touch because it is still very commonplace for young people to eschew seatbelts. It is reflective of some kind of impairment, but not necessarily alcohol or drugs. Too many kids just can't make the connection that they are mortal and breakable.

Not really. Most teens wear seatbelts. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but the teens I'm around wear them. I know two who don't.

Most teens normally wear seatbelts. Teens that are drunk and cruising around at 5am on a school day are probably in the less likely cohort.

There were also 4 kids in the back seat so not enough seatbelts even if they wanted to wear one.
Driver was smart enough to wear a seatbelt but not smart enough to not drink and drive or speed.

It was an SUV with a second row of benches. You can see it from the images on the NBC website.

wow so there were enough seat belts and 5 kids still decided not to use them WTF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Practical question about insurance here:

If the teen's parents have insurance, aren't the maximums per accident usually something like $1mil. If so, and there are 5 kids who are seriously injured -- how does that work with the insurance? The insurance pays up to $1mil in claims, and then ....? The parents of the 5 who are injured (or worse) sue the parent of the driver? Could the parents have a verdict against them for several million (i.e. the injured teens need long term care)?

High net worth individuals often have umbrella insurance policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the parents on this forum who love to say "It's not a big deal for teenagers to drink underage" are silent on this thread. These are the consequences of enabling and encouraging alcohol with the teenage set. It's not a low-stakes game to play and I hope you parents who turn a blind eye can wake up and stop the enabling.

I mean you do you but I know my 17yo drinks and we have drilled it into her head to never drive drunk or call us when she needs a ride. She has done this and I’m glad. She’s going to college in the fall and I want this to be non negotiable.

My parents were like this growing up. No so much in HS but when I was home from college freshman year I went out for new years. They knew we were all drinking. My dad came to pick us up at 1am because they always had the policy that they would rather come get us, no questions asked, then have us get in the car with a drunk friend behind the wheel.

Yep. And if you have a hard and fast no drinking rule, the kids will just lie about drinking and be afraid to call for help if they have no way to get home other than a drunk driver.

DP - there is a middle ground to teens and drinking, which is to educate them on the impact of alcohol on adolescent brain development and setting the expectation that they won't drink. At the same time, you can be matter of fact about the likelihood that they may drink at some point and that if they do, their safety is paramount and you will always come and pick them up. It's not either you assume they'll be drinking because don't all teenagers drink (no, they don't) or you have a zero tolerance policy to the point of refusing to interact with your kid if they're intoxicated.

Just as many adults who drink heavily assume that everyone drinks as much as they do, many parents who expect their teenagers will drink and don't discourage it assume that all teenagers drink.

[Anonymous]

Looks like nbc4 is continuing to update the original article as additional information becomes available. They've added a few additional details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baffling story. Six or more teens, age 14-17 (friends? family members?) in one car, driving at 6 am Monday morning, alcohol involved. Had they been up all night? Or started drinking first thing in the morning? So confused.

What's baffling is that you're baffled. This is what happens during impulsive, risk-taking adolescence. This is why parents of teens still have to educate and establish boundaries, and why despite not needing round the clock care like when they were toddlers, parenting is still fraught when your kid is in high school.

- parent of 18 and 13 year old.

Do your kids, at those ages, usually go to the same parties?

I'm not PP, but my sons are exactly 5 yrs apart like that. No. They do no, did not, and I would not have let them if they asked to. They are now 18 and 23. The older just told me that he Life360 stalked his younger brother when he his brother told him he was going to a party that he (older brother) thought was possibly attended by older kids. Then called younger brother to make sure he was safe and not drunk. (He's away at school, I didn't know about it until they told me this weekend)

Anyway, point being the kids are close but they both neither have the same friends due to age gap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baffling story. Six or more teens, age 14-17 (friends? family members?) in one car, driving at 6 am Monday morning, alcohol involved. Had they been up all night? Or started drinking first thing in the morning? So confused.

It is not that baffling at all. Teens do dumb things.

I am a mom of teens. I would like to say my kids will never drink and drive but obviously, it could happen. Because teens make really stupid decisions (this is one we have been working on forever and I am really hoping they will never do this). But n
I can confidently say neither of my teens will be out driving at 6 am any day of the week. If this happened at 1 am, nobody would blink an eye. But out in a car full of kids drunk at 6 am on a Monday morning? Weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Practical question about insurance here:

If the teen's parents have insurance, aren't the maximums per accident usually something like $1mil. If so, and there are 5 kids who are seriously injured -- how does that work with the insurance? The insurance pays up to $1mil in claims, and then ....? The parents of the 5 who are injured (or worse) sue the parent of the driver? Could the parents have a verdict against them for several million (i.e. the injured teens need long term care)?

High net worth individuals often have umbrella insurance policies.

We do. Most of our friends do. It's often the first thing a good financial advisor will tell you to do when your Net Worth is over 7-8 figures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baffling story. Six or more teens, age 14-17 (friends? family members?) in one car, driving at 6 am Monday morning, alcohol involved. Had they been up all night? Or started drinking first thing in the morning? So confused.

It is not that baffling at all. Teens do dumb things.

I am a mom of teens. I would like to say my kids will never drink and drive but obviously, it could happen. Because teens make really stupid decisions (this is one we have been working on forever and I am really hoping they will never do this). But n
I can confidently say neither of my teens will be out driving at 6 am any day of the week. If this happened at 1 am, nobody would blink an eye. But out in a car full of kids drunk at 6 am on a Monday morning? Weird.

Many teens sneak out. It's not that weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baffling story. Six or more teens, age 14-17 (friends? family members?) in one car, driving at 6 am Monday morning, alcohol involved. Had they been up all night? Or started drinking first thing in the morning? So confused.

It is not that baffling at all. Teens do dumb things.

I am a mom of teens. I would like to say my kids will never drink and drive but obviously, it could happen. Because teens make really stupid decisions (this is one we have been working on forever and I am really hoping they will never do this). But n
I can confidently say neither of my teens will be out driving at 6 am any day of the week. If this happened at 1 am, nobody would blink an eye. But out in a car full of kids drunk at 6 am on a Monday morning? Weird.

Many teens sneak out. It's not that weird.

really? as many as 7 families involved here and none of them knew their kids snuck out? I don't buy that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the parents on this forum who love to say "It's not a big deal for teenagers to drink underage" are silent on this thread. These are the consequences of enabling and encouraging alcohol with the teenage set. It's not a low-stakes game to play and I hope you parents who turn a blind eye can wake up and stop the enabling.

At this point you have no idea what the parents are like and what their rules are. It’s possible that the kids snuck out or said they were staying the night at a friend’s house (even though that is strange for a Sunday). I knew kids who did that in high school even though they had strict parents.