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As a follow up to the teens and alcohol thread I wanted to post an anecdote that my son related to me.
My son is 16 and junior in high school. Saturday was homecoming at his school. One of the boys in school sold tickets to a party at his home. The ticket fees were to cover the cost of refreshments. His parents were home.
My son ultimately decided not to go to this party. He never asked me if he could go. He just decided not to go. I didn't even find out about it until this morning when one of his friends called to tell him about the evening's events. When I asked him he told me that he knew there would be at least a thousand dollars worth of booze there (maybe he was exaggerating, maybe it included food) and that the evening was destined to end with the police.
Well-he was right. Five girls wound up at the hospital with alcohol poisoning. One boy wound up arrested for mouthing off to the police. The host parents were arrested.
SO-those of you thinking of hosting a party so that the kids are safe under your roof. Please think again. Any gathering with lots of 16-18 year olds drinking is bound to end badly. There is no way to adequately supervise kids this age when they start drinking.
Do they arrest anybody over 18 in the house for it even though they aren't drinking and if they take a breathalyzer it will show 0.00?
Momma_bear, if you son were a football in the district I mostly went to, it would be a darn good thing he didn't go to that party. If any athlete was found to be at an event where there was underage drinking, that athlete would be suspended from playing school sports for I believe a calendar year.
Do they arrest anybody over 18 in the house for it even though they aren't drinking and if they take a breathalyzer it will show 0.00?
I don't know. I have never hosted a party where I provided liquor for underaged kids so I am unaware of who gets arrested. Some of the boys have already turned 18 so I don't think everyone over 18 was arrested.
The police did not arrest any of the boys for drinking. The one boy was arrested for disorderly conduct. I am sure he mouthed off to the police and that is what earned him a trip in a police car.
I took a look at the FL statutes and there really aren't severe penalties for serving alcohol to minors. The max penalty is 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
Momma_bear, if you son were a football in the district I mostly went to, it would be a darn good thing he didn't go to that party. If any athlete was found to be at an event where there was underage drinking, that athlete would be suspended from playing school sports for I believe a calendar year.
I don't think Florida High School Athletic Association has any rules regarding drinking away from games. The rules only address the use of alcohol during a game or at a game site. My son is expecting there to be team repercussions from his coach though.
Where I live, the parents are fined if they are at home and alcohol is present with teens under age 21. fines up to $500 and if it happens 3 times-jail time and community service hours- it has happened with my daughter where kids brought alcohol when i was not home and I told her about this law and not to do it ever again. it has not happened again.I don't understand how parents would allow it b/c of the liability.
That sounds a lot like asking for trouble. These types of parties do go on around this area aswell, with ticket sales, endless booze supplies etc. These are the kinds of parties that I tell my daughter, that's a bad idea, they get out of control, I don't want you to go, my cellphone's available any time. As far as I know she's been making sensible choices around that so far...I've had no reason to suspect otherwise.
Where I live, the parents are fined if they are at home and alcohol is present with teens under age 21. fines up to $500 and if it happens 3 times-jail time and community service hours- it has happened with my daughter where kids brought alcohol when i was not home and I told her about this law and not to do it ever again. it has not happened again.I don't understand how parents would allow it b/c of the liability.
My husband and I were interested in what the fines are in FL so we looked up the statute. The penalty is a $500 fine and a maximum of 60 days in jail. I think that is a very light penalty. Especially since most parents do not get jail time. $500 is not that much of penalty unless you can charge them multiple times (once for each underaged person at the party). Especially since most of these parties seem to be hosted by people who have large homes and plenty of money.
I am still mad about this and my son didn't even go to the party! I fully expect that teenagers will try to experiment with alcohol. I did it. My husband did it. He and his friends drank a case of malt liquor, got totally sick and hid the bottles in his sister's closet (he was 18, she was 15). When my MIL found the bottles she thought my SIL had a serious drinking problem!! My husband came clean and told his mother. She still kids him about it and he's 44 years old.
But this was the height of irresponsibility. It's one thing for a college kid to provide some high school kids he knows with a case of malt liquor. It's quite another thing altogether for parents to provide unlimited amounts of hard liquor to a bunch of kids that they don't even know.
Anyway, I am really really upset by this and I am very glad to have this board to sound off. I don't really have anyone around here to talk to about this. I really don't want to talk about people around here, especially since I don't know them all that well. SO THANK YOU CD FOLKS!
They are lucky that hospitalization for alcohol poisoning was the worst of it. It will be interesting to see if anyone sues.
I don't know if I will hear but if I do I will let you all know. My husband made an interesting point when I talked about the parents suing. He wonders what the actual money damages would be. If the girls recover they may be some money in medical bills but the amount of the recovery would be pretty limited. If the girls parents are attorneys that may be a totally different story though. I would have my husband sue just because I was so angry.
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