Underage Drinking In the News
The issue of underage drinking has been in the Connecticut news a lot during the last month with the suspension of football players and cheerleaders (later reduced) in East Haven and the release of 26 names of underage youth arrested at a party in Cheshire. In both of these cases the thing that struck me was the powerful community opposition that arose to the consequences that were imposed on the violators.
In East Haven 80 people showed up at a Board of Education meeting to protest the suspension policy (probably 78 more than the usual turn out), and in Cheshire parents are strongly divided over the town's policy of publicly naming youth charged with underage drinking. With both of these cases it seems to me that we have an issue where the consequences of violating a rule or a law were clearly spelled out in advance, but when the consequence was imposed many parents were quick to jump to their kid's defense.
Is this the problem? Do we support something in theory, but oppose it in practice when it impacts our child, and are these consequences too severe? What do you think about publicizing the names of youth arrested for underage drinking, and what if it were your child?
I think the messages that we send to our children by how we react to events like these teaches them much more than anything we say to them. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
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