One in six high school students on overnight stays at prospective colleges drinks alcohol during the visit
Many colleges urge prospective students to make overnight visits to their campuses, even arranging for them to spend the night in the dorms. But a new survey finds that one in six high school students on such overnight visits reports drinking during their stay.
(This may explain why so many high school students have told me over the years that that they somehow missed the official college tour while visiting campuses.)
A survey by the Center for Adolescent Research and Education at Susquehanna University (CARE) and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) found that about 16 percent of surveyed teens who had been on an overnight visit reported drinking alcohol during the visit.
The results don’t surprise me as going to college parties is often a highlight of a campus overnight, especially during informal visits where two high school juniors bunk in the dorm room of an older sibling or cousin. I would love to see this survey extended to find out whether the teens drank once they arrived at college and with what frequency.
(A friend taking her high school graduate to a summer freshmen orientation at UGA a few years ago said one of the slide shows featured police mug shots of teens who had been arrested for alcohol during an earlier freshmen orientation. She said the mugs of the bleary-eyed 18-year-olds and the university’s warning of dire circumstances for such offenses scared her. She was not so sure they scared her son.)
In the survey, teens also reported engaging in sex or other intimate sexual behavior (17 percent), using drugs other than alcohol (5 percent) or driving while impaired (2 percent) during their overnight college visit.
According to the release:
The study, conducted for CARE and SADD by ORC International Inc. surveyed 1,070 U.S. teens from age 16 to 19, 270 of whom indicated they’d been on an overnight college admissions visit. It includes high school students currently making college visits and current college students reflecting on previous visits. Data was collected online between April 17 and 20, 2012.
“This information offers a cautionary tale to parents and college administrators,” said Stephen Gray Wallace, director of CARE and an associate research professor at Susquehanna University. “One in six teens who have been on an overnight college admissions visit, some as young as 16, are making poor and potentially tragic choices on campus. Colleges and universities should examine their policies on campus visits to ensure the safety of young visitors and their hosts.”
For some teens, the college visit was the first time they engaged in some of these behaviors. For example, 51 percent of teens who reported drinking during the overnight visit said they had done so for the first time. Fifty-two percent of respondents who reported engaging in some type of sexual activity during their visit indicated that they participated in behaviors in which they had not previously engaged.
“These results speak to parents about the importance of communicating about risks and setting expectations for their teens in advance of new and potentially challenging experiences,” said Penny Wells, SADD’s president and CEO. “The temptations are waiting for these young people as soon as they go off to the next phase of their lives at college. Parents should open a strong communication channel with their teens to guide them in the right direction.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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71 comments Add your comment
Winston
June 27th, 2012
10:31 am
Americans and their prude offspring are comic gold.
johnny too good
June 27th, 2012
10:38 am
1 in 6? I’m surprised it isnt more, most kids know that college gives them a little more freedom and a new environment with new people to discover.
They should also look into how many of the kids have sex on these trips
I actually remember missing two session during my freshman orientation after a night of partying lol
Disclaimer: Even if this article seems to imply that these college tour trips are bad or possibly detrimental, i agree with their overall use and purpose, there will always be bad apples in every bunch
John from Cobb
June 27th, 2012
11:04 am
Dah
Mountain Man
June 27th, 2012
11:08 am
I think that criminalizing alcohol consumption for 18-21 year olds has driven it underground and made it MORE likely to over-drink and binge. When I attended college, it was legal to drink at 18, and I don’t remember having near the issues with alcohol that we have today. When you make something forbidden, it becomes desireable.
I have refused to support MADD anymore since they started supporting the 21-year-old drinking age. Don’t get me wrong, I am 1000% in support of laws against drunk DRIVING. There is a big difference between drunk driving and just drinking. Now you have a law on the books that is rarely, if ever, enforced. What message does that send about our laws (sort of like having a 55-mph speed limit on the interstates inside the perimeter).
Shar
June 27th, 2012
11:18 am
By the time high school juniors and seniors are making college visits, nearly all of them will have made a decision about their own participation in drinking and other behavior their parents regard as risky. College merely gives them a chance to act on that decision with less chance of their parents finding out.
A more alarming discovery would be that those students who have chosen to moderate their own behavior could feel pressure from the host college students to be more adventurous. In my experience, visiting high schoolers regard the college students as the acme of authority on everything from classes at the school to how to dress, and those hosts (who usually act as guides as an on-campus job) should be made excrutiatingly aware of how every little thing they do or say will be taken as coming from On High, to the potential detriment of the high school student.
tony
June 27th, 2012
11:28 am
” have a good time , all the time”
Studies Show
June 27th, 2012
11:32 am
In a related study, the other 5 are twice as likely to be lame.
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
11:36 am
” Data was collected online between April 17 and 20, 2012.”
This makes me wonder if this was an accurate statistical sample, or just people willing to answer an online survey. Dramatically different conclusions could result.
Old timer
June 27th, 2012
11:37 am
I read, recently that in GA between seventy and eighty percent ofhigh school seniors say it is easy to get alcohol. I am not Anti drinking…so I am not a prude, but underage kids make poor choices and many, too many, die in alcohol related deaths. I do think parents and teams need more education.
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
11:40 am
“One in six teens …. are making poor and potentially tragic choices on campus.”
Is this not the purview of teenagers–make poor choices?
Frankie
June 27th, 2012
11:46 am
So these students go on college tours without their parents.. I have always gone on the tour with my daughter. It may be her decision but it is my money….
So, it goes back to parenting and the values instilled into that child or young adult(for those of you who think these teen agers are capable of getting every decision right)…
T-Square
June 27th, 2012
11:48 am
In other news, the sky is blue and it is going to be hot this afternoon.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
11:57 am
So by 16, the parents have not taught their children to make good decisions. Sad. As far as sexual activity is concerned, they better be able to make the right decisions at age 12 or 13. Old enough to get pregnant or to get someone pergnant.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
12:00 pm
I like the fact that SADD has its name as “Students Against Destructive Decisions”. That could be decisions about drugs, over-drinking, drinking and driving, sexual behavior, etc, but may NOT include social drinking. Gets my support over MADD which is now MAD – mothers against drinking.
Richard
June 27th, 2012
12:01 pm
And this is a bad thing? The real problem here is that 5 of 6 high school students are becoming good liars.
David Granger
June 27th, 2012
12:23 pm
The drinking age should be 18. If a person is old enough to vote or to go and die for their country, then they’re old enough to drink.
carlosgvv
June 27th, 2012
12:35 pm
When I was in college, long ago, the worst thing you could do was to drink. Naturally, everyone did. Now, after years of pot, LSD, estacy and God knows what else, it’s refresing to see things have come full circle.
Logical Dude
June 27th, 2012
12:35 pm
mountain man: So by 16, the parents have not taught their children to make good decisions.
Regarding drinking, how can a parent give any teaching on how to drink? current laws make it criminal to even give your kid a drink! Parents aren’t even able to teach kids to drink responsibly and do it within the law.
I agree with all those who say the forbidden is desirable, so kids will do it secretly, and in binges.
Legalize alcohol consumption similar to Europe, and enforce the driving laws. It’s not the drinking that’s bad, it’s the bad decisions resulting from over indulgence (such as driving intoxicated or having unprotected sex).
AlreadySheared
June 27th, 2012
12:36 pm
Right on, David – the drinking age should be 18.
I still remember, as a service member, carrying loaded guns to work, being in charge of 5 other guys with loaded guns, and yet being somehow not mature enough to walk into a bar and buy a beer. What a crock!
scrappy
June 27th, 2012
12:36 pm
“I have always gone on the tour with my daughter.”
Right, cause being over-bearing and over-protective has NEVER driven young college freshmen over the edge when they are finally free of you – good job.
skipper
June 27th, 2012
12:37 pm
@mountain man and david granger;
Y’all are right on! It was 18 when I was at UGA, and on my prospective visit, it was nearly 100%. Arresting kids now for what was legal in our day is nuts! Go look at the Pandora (UGA Yearbook) form 78 or 79….it states “The number one sport at UGA is not football”……and then it shows how to mix various drinks! Every bar in town had specials… Zoo night at the B and L, Papa-Joe’s on Tuesday nights, O’Malleys on Thursdays, etc. Now its driven underground and kids get in trouble. Football players get arrested and miss games for doing what one former standout player paid for (ask an old letterman about “seagraves”! This was a big party for the UGA football team!) They should have left it at 18!! I am old enough to have been through alot, and I am not for driving drunk, etc. But it made more sense at 18……………………………
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
12:45 pm
” current laws make it criminal to even give your kid a drink!”
Not true. You may legally serve your child in your home. No one else’s child. But your own. And only in your own home.
Once Again
June 27th, 2012
12:46 pm
Which is a reduction from the 1 in 3 that drink regularly when they are in town.
NTLB
June 27th, 2012
1:09 pm
The more you forbid the more they covet.
Howard Finkelstein
June 27th, 2012
1:19 pm
And yet ANOTHER storm in a teacup. When will these overbearning/over protective mommys learn that attempting to legislate morality never works.
Nixon brought about the war on drugs, which was lost before it began.
Mountain Man
June 27th, 2012
1:26 pm
Hey skipper – when did you graduate from UGA? I graduated in 1980.
skipper
June 27th, 2012
1:36 pm
@Mountain man….me too!!
Devil's Advocate
June 27th, 2012
1:54 pm
The drinking age and the point of this article are both insignificant compared to the bigger issue of good decision making that others have pointed out. I remember seeing a couple of girls coming back to Creswell after drinking during my orientation at UGA. Both were crying and ashamed because they got sloppy drunk and caught by their parents who were attending with them. If your parents do not approve of you underage drinking then it’s probably a bad decision to go out and do it on a trip with them. Just saying…
Oh yeah, there’s also plenty of “adults” who still can’t drink responsibly at 60 so age really doesn’t have much to do with it.
question
June 27th, 2012
2:00 pm
If you’re going to send your kid for an overnight stay at a college, expect your kid to do whatever his/her hosts are doing. If the hosts drink, the kid is probably going to drink. If the host party, the kid is probably going to party. If the hosts gets laid easily, the kid is going to get laid easily.
There is a man I greatly respected when he was here on this earth and he used to always say, “tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.”
Warrior Woman
June 27th, 2012
2:05 pm
A more interesting study would be whether students drank alcohol on their college vists that did not do so.
Beyond that, I agree with Mountain Man. It seems the more we prohibit things, the more attractive they become to teens.
Stephen Wallace - Atlanta Journal Consitution Carries CARE/SADD Research Results
June 27th, 2012
2:21 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Get Schooled blog has carried a story based on the results of a study related to overnight college visits by high [...]
bu2
June 27th, 2012
2:33 pm
There are thousands alive and healthy today because the drinking age was raised. Insurance companies don’t have higher rates for those under 21 just for fun. There was plenty of binge/excessive drinking, and more importantly, the related drunk driving afterwards, when it was legal at 18.
Maybe y’all just drank too much in college to remember that!!!
socrates
June 27th, 2012
2:42 pm
This is news ? To who? Someone living under a rock?
Concerned DeKalb Mom
June 27th, 2012
2:47 pm
I had 2 different college visits to the college I attended. My first visit was with my parents. We did the official tours, saw the buildings, visited the school store, etc, etc. The second visit was by myself to visit a classmate from high school who was a year ahead of me. Went up on a Thursday afternoon, made it to a class on Friday, and had a great time with my hosts Friday night and Saturday night.
I received all the information I needed from both of those visits. Each visit told me something a little different.
Pluto
June 27th, 2012
2:52 pm
During my time in college at the party place referred to as UGA, I observed many of the worst incidents of drinking were performed by kids that were closely monitored at “home” and now had the opportunity to make their own choices out of the view of parents. As a recovering cathoholic, I had experienced alcohol at a younger age. Puking in the bushes outside of the dorm on any night was a common sight. Kids today are master partiers by their 9th or 10th grade.
Ronin
June 27th, 2012
3:44 pm
Mountain man @ 11:08, that’s part of the problem. Simply passing a law changing the drinking age from 18 to 21 simply makes the activity go underground. The age was raised from 18 to 19, 20, then age 21 in GA, back in the early 80’s.
The key is parents educating children about alcohol use at home so that when they (children) encounter this type environment, they know how to cope with it.
skipper
June 27th, 2012
4:33 pm
@Pluto,
You are right……Freshmen girls at a grain-alcohol party. The ones kept on a tight leash were the most likely (as any experienced upper-classman could tell you) to er,ugh,well, let that foot slip! Things were still simpler at 18.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
June 27th, 2012
4:42 pm
Should anyone desire more insights into contemporary college life, read Tom Wolfe’s
“I Am Charlotte Simmons.”
MA
June 27th, 2012
4:56 pm
As I read the article I thought one in six? – we have a lot of liars in our young people. I agree with the posters who talk about the kids kept on a tight leash at home. My kids both told me how funny and stupid some kids got when drinking for the first time at college. Some funny, some stupid, some really sick. My son got really tired of all the underage drinkers coming back to the dorms to pull fire alarms at two and three in the a.m. He is disabled and had a very hard time getting out of bed to get outside. They finally just let him sleep if they knew soon enough that it was a pulled alarm, which was usually three to four nights a week the first semester. My daughter witnessed alcohol poisoning not once but twice at her school in the first four weeks! Scary!! Neither of my kids drink and would be totally honest with us if they did(they did both try it). They don’t like any alcohol and hate what they witness when kids do try it for the first time or get carried away with it. We also have alcoholism in our families and they grew up with it, so, they know first hand what it can do to people.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
5:31 pm
“There are thousands alive and healthy today because the drinking age was raised”
And a lot more could have been saved if they outlawed drinking between the ages of 30-33, which has the highest drunk driving death rate. If just saving lives is the goal, why did they not do that? If the reason was (as MADD claims) that 18-21 year-old brains are not fully developed and cannot yet make informed, good decisions, then why allow an 18-year old to join the military service? Should that not also be outlawed until 21? You youngsters are too young to remember when you could not vote at 18, but you could be drafted, sent to war, and KILL AND DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY. They finally recognized the obvious contradiction in these actions and lowered the voting age to 18 (heaven knows they would never raise the age of conscription to 21). Then they went and reimposed the contradictory messages by raising the drinking age to 21! Georgia made it even worse by voting to allow 18-year-olds WHO JOIN THE MILITARY to drink! So the single action of signing up for the military means your brain is developed and you can now make “good choices”. Give me a break. The only reason they raised the drinking age was because they could, kids that age were a very small part of the voting population and so their rights were terminated.
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
5:33 pm
My kids gave me a good reason to not lower the drinking age to 18, and it has to do with HS. Yes, anyone who really wants alcohol in HS can get it. But, if you change the drinking age to 18, virtually all HS seniors would be legal to purchase.. While most 14 year olds will know a senior, many 14 year olds don’t know someone who is 21. And that little bump in the road may be enough to discourage, at least for a few years, the first drinking experience.
Fred ™
June 27th, 2012
6:04 pm
How nice (really), ALL day and no one pointed out the glaring grammatical error. I believe you meant to type PROSPECTIVE Maureen, not perspective.
I didn’t notice either lol but it’s was my wife’s first comment when I showed her the blog (she’s the expert in Higher Education in my house, and truthfully probably would be on this forum were she to engage here).
Fred ™
June 27th, 2012
6:08 pm
Mountain Man @ 5:31: Preach it brother. When I was in Germany, a kid of any age could order a beer and get served. It was no problem. Kids learn to drink and drink responsibly (and no they don’t drink at 5 for any of your mindless Baptists that are going to get stupid about my comment). Drinking there is no longer a “sign of being a grown up” it’s just having a beer. Therefore they don’t go bat crap crazy and sneak off to drink.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
6:29 pm
“My kids gave me a good reason to not lower the drinking age to 18, and it has to do with HS.”
Yea, Atlanta Mom, I remember that reason being given when the upped the age. Horrors! A person still in high school might be legally able to drink!!! And that will make all the 14-year-olds start drinking!! I have news for you – with the legal drinking age at 21, 14-year-olds are STILL getting the alcohol! Not only that, but the seniors are drinking and all the college students are drinking! Just not legally. We taught all four of our kids to drink responsibility, allowed them to drink at home. I know I may not know everything that went on, but the youngest is 22, no one has been arrested for dui, none have had an accident, the girls have not gotten pregnant, and , as far as I know, the boys have not sired any children. So we make the 18-year olds second-class citizens so that YOUR children won’t be tempted by the DEMON alcohol.
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
7:26 pm
Mountain Man,
I didn’t say it would stop teenage drinking. But there is some good common sense involved. All that peer pressure stuff? If you can put it off for two years, soo much the better.
Two out of three of my children don’t drink. I think it’s because they saw such irresponsible drinking in HS (all that vomiting, don’t you know).
The third child (underaged) drinks at home, and at college. But, she doesn’t drink and drive.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
7:38 pm
Good for you, Atlanta Mom. I was thinking for a moment you were a teetotaler out to save the world from alcohol. The trick isn’t to stop them from drinking, but stopping bad choices like drinking to excess (vomit stage). That is where it gets dangerous. But when they start out with good choices , like walking to the bar in downtown Athens rather than driving, you have less chance of a dui. Or having a DD along.
Ben
June 27th, 2012
8:47 pm
So what if they’re drinking, I drank a few years before I was legal also;and while u double talking hypocrites are at it why don’t u make it illegal for them to smoke and drink?Threaten them with jail time, huh? Can’t do it can u but u can put an adult who sells to them under the jail.
English Teacher
June 27th, 2012
8:53 pm
Perspective? Prospective? Oh, right, spell-check doesn’t help with grammar.
The drinking laws today make otherwise good kids criminals. Different states mean different laws. How many of you really know how the Georgia laws read? In Georgia, can your under 21 child drink in your home? Yes, as long as you are there too. Can other folks’ kids drink in your home, even with their parents’ permission? Nope.
MIPs (Minor in Possession) and DUIs stay with you a long time. Don’t drink and drive.
Maureen Downey
June 27th, 2012
9:09 pm
@Fred, Thanks for spotting that. Had it right in head and in the lede, but misstepped in the body. Sorry did not fix earlier. On vacation this week and only getting to the blog every few hours. (Before anyone comments: Journalists have this quirk where we spell the lead — the beginning of the story — as lede.)
Maureen
3schoolkids
June 27th, 2012
9:36 pm
I beg to differ on the arguments about the “good old days”. Drinking age was 18 when I was in college and I knew plenty of students who were not “responsible drinkers”. My freshman year of college I lost 4 friends to 2 different drunk drivers (the friends weren’t drunk but they were hit by people who were-one under age, one not) and another died from a stab wound he got while fighting (he was under age and drunk). These days students don’t need an excuse to drink, smoke, or inhale and being legal or not won’t stop the ones who feel the need to binge. And to all the posters on here “judging” the prudes and teetotallers, please keep in mind not everyone CAN or SHOULD drink. My daughter has been judged, accused of being a snob and made fun of because she does not drink, smoke, inhale (but has friends and former friends who do). She had a real problem with syncope (fainting) from low blood pressure last summer and really found out who her friends were as several assumed she was drinking, smoking or inhaling. She has told me College stories that would make your head spin and I am so glad we have a good relationship and that she has the self confidence to make the decisions that are right for her.
There is a problem when Colleges have to “require” attendance at sessions at orientation before you can register for your classes (because if they didn’t everyone would be off getting drunk or high). There is a problem when under age students get their alcohol (and sometimes drug) supplies delivered by Mom and Dad, Aunt or Uncle. One of the students in my daughter’s dorm received a “package” delivered through the mail by her Aunt. There is a problem when if they can’t get their hands on anything illegal, they will go to the store and buy cans of whipped cream or pressurized computer cleaner or rent a helium canister from the party store.
It’s not a problem that will be fixed by lowering the drinking age.
Anonmom
June 27th, 2012
9:42 pm
I think we do some things backwards — I think Europe has the drinking/driving order right — it’s no “big deal” to get alcohol — “kids” can drink as teens — it’ s not that big a deal — they learn to drink responsibly and I’m not convinced that they have the same issues with alcohol poisoning and binge drinking that we have here (yes, they have drunks….). On the other hand, it’s really hard to get a driver’s license in Europe — I think it’s somewhere north of 18 and costs a fortune. I think that puts the emphasis and the “specialness” on the driver’s license rather than the drinking — I think that makes much more sense — instead we hand the keys to a heavy and deadly machine to 15 year olds and 16 year olds and then tell them they can get into lots of trouble for drinking before they hit 21. They can be sent to war to fight and can vote at 18 — if they commit a serious crime or have sex with someone against their will or harm them by the time they are 16 they can do some serious jail time — but sorry, no alcohol until you are 21 …. This is actually pretty crazy. It goes back to some of my earilier posts about this crazy, weird “teen” zone that America has intentionally created that didn’t really exist before 1908 and that, physicaaly and harmonally probably shouldn’t have ever existed…… we’ve made a mess of our “young adults” with some of these rules and they backfire on us.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
9:48 pm
“There is a problem when if they can’t get their hands on anything illegal, they will go to the store and buy cans of whipped cream or pressurized computer cleaner or rent a helium canister from the party store.
It’s not a problem that will be fixed by lowering the drinking age.”
If they are that desperate, then having a law mandating a 21 drinking age doesn’t help either. What the law DOES is trap good kids into rediculous “crimes” if they get caught.
mountain man
June 27th, 2012
9:49 pm
ridiculous
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
9:56 pm
I have a question for you folks. When I went to college, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, drinking age was 21 and everybody drank. But we didn’t go out and plan to get sh*t faced. It did happen upon occasion, but it wasn’t the plan. But as I talk to my children, that seems to be the goal for the evening.
Can anyone explain that to me?
TimeOut
June 27th, 2012
10:06 pm
My son decided to ‘cruise for chicks’ at UGA while he was still 17. Being short on money, long on stupidity, and harboring a growing problem with alcohol, he decided to take the bet offered on the terrace of a local establishment, and drank several shots in a row. He was proud that he won, and happy with his winnings. He displayed them with glee ot the arresting officers. It took him a year to work off his charges via treatment, public service, and fines. While it is true that most can drink casually with little danger, I wonder how much misery we could banish from our society if we chose to empty our land of booze. It’s no more necessary to a good time than is a cigarette, a chocolate bar, etc. The difference is that chocolate bars, even tobacco, rarely result in random acts of violence on our highways, in our families, etc. When I adopted my son when he was 3, I was aware that his Mexican Indian heritage included generational alcoholism. If we can’t banish alcohol, and all of our teaching does not protect those who lack the ‘enzyme’ or whatever it is to properly deal with alcohol, then what can we do? I don’t want to pretend that I care about being a ‘prude.’ That means nothing to me. I care about my child’s future. I care about my siblings, three of whom have been maimed by drunk drivers in three separate accidents: one lost his leg; another had his back broken; another had extensive plastic surgery to rebuild his face. Can’t we have a good time without pretending that we don’t pay an often tragic price for the privilege? We should admit that this is what we value, and that this is the price we are willing to pay.
Atlanta Mom
June 27th, 2012
10:11 pm
Timeout,
Many asians also lack the enyzme to digest alcohol. But they aren’t looking to ban the drug.
bu2
June 27th, 2012
10:39 pm
@mountainman
I remember the argument well about being sent to Vietnam and not being able to vote. I was in the groups that could vote and drink at 18. The drinking age changed shortly thereafter.
Its just a good law. 18-21 year olds aren’t real responsible. If its harder to get, its less abused. Some people make the same argument you are about legalizing drugs. I think it just leads to more abuse and more addiction.
And the problem isn’t as much what the kids do to themselves. Its what they do to others when driving and drinking. Its all well and good to say parents should teach them better. That doesn’t help the people who get killed.
3schoolkids
June 27th, 2012
11:29 pm
It is ridiculous “crimes”. It is not the under age drinking by itself (talk to the campus police and they will tell you if a kid is drinking and not causing any trouble they probably won’t do anything but make sure they get home ok). It is when they drink and drive, or drink and fight, or drink and rape, or drink and steal, or drink and do drugs or drink and get hit by a car or jump off a balcony that it becomes ridiculous and dangerous, for them and others. Do you think a group of kids quietly drinking in the basement are going to get in trouble with the police? Not unless something bad happens. The kids know this. The biggest game for many college girls now is to go party at the local bar, get in with the fake id (which is SO obviously fake-no challenge in that) and NOT have to pay for any drinks. It’s not that they are “trying to get away with something” or enjoy breaking the law-they just want to party.
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
7:35 am
“But we didn’t go out and plan to get sh*t faced. It did happen upon occasion, but it wasn’t the plan. But as I talk to my children, that seems to be the goal for the evening.
Can anyone explain that to me?”
Atlanta Mom, I graduated in 1980 and the drinking age was 18, though it changed soon after that. Are you saying you were BEFORE it went down to 18?
I don’t understand why people want to drink to excess, either. We all know why MEN want WOMEN to drink to excess. To quote the rhyme:
Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.
That is something I preached to my daughters constantly. I didn’t have a problem with them drinking, but I wanted them to know that there was a REASON those men in bars bought them those free drinks. I think I got my point across.
Sometimes I wonder if people get drunk so they can do things that they want to do and then excuse them in the morning by saying, “oh, I was drunk, so don’t hold me responsible.”
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
7:43 am
“It’s not a problem that will be fixed by lowering the drinking age.”
LOWERING the drinking age should never have been a question – the question was why was it ever upped in the first place. It would have been different if they had said “we have done studies and the brain is not capable of making informed decisions until 21, so we are raising the age of majority FOR ALL PURPOSES to 21″. That would include voting, serving in the military, buying cigarettes, buying alcohol, entering into contracts, everything. But they chose the coward’s way and just said “we can take away these kids’ rights and THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT”, so they did. If it was just about kids dying, how many 18-21 year olds have died in Iraq and Afganistan?
Yankee Prof
June 28th, 2012
8:20 am
My freshman orientation program invited parents to stay overnight in a dormroom as well, though in a separate wing from their children. I snuck off to an off-campus party at my earliest opportunity and stumbled back to the dorm around one a.m., only to run into my dad and a group of the other fathers, who were stumbling back from the one bar located just off campus!
AlreadySheared
June 28th, 2012
9:24 am
@Timeout:
“I wonder how much misery we could banish from our society if we chose to empty our land of booze.”
This was tried once via a constitutional amendment. It was a disaster.
@bu2
An 18 year old is a grown man or woman – able to form legally binding contracts, vote, and yes serve our country. Eating 5 – 9 servings of fruit and vegetables daily, along with engaging in regular exercise, will also promote good outcomes and prevent bad ones. Do you want to make a special “eat your vegetables” law for adults under 21 as well? Since they aren’t respsonsible? Otherwise they may just eat McDonalds cheeseburgers and sacks of chips.
3schoolkids
June 28th, 2012
11:15 am
And there it is right there “we can take away these kids rights”…to drink so we will. Drinking alcohol is a right? That is the problem, our society thinks of alcohol as a right to be given or taken away. Landsakes Ma get out the still, the govment is takin’ away r likker. We don’t know how to deal with it, Prohibition is not the answer, but neither is free access to everyone, so we have to have an age cutoff somewhere. Anyone notice the uproar over banning sugar laden sodas and obesity? Ever wonder why there is no uproar about alcohol consumption and obesity? Do you know how alcohol impacts your metabolism and how much sugar is in a monster margarita? Yet there is not a peep about that because alcohol is for adults and adults have a right to decide for themselves.
And by the way, I don’t have a problem with raising the voting age, enlistment or drafting age, etc. I would much have preferred my brother to not have been able to enlist right after graduating high school and go to Iraq. It was a huge learning experience for him, but I thank God everyday that he got to come home and pray to God everyday for those who didn’t and those still serving us.
bu2
June 28th, 2012
12:38 pm
@Sheared
Missing the point. Its not about what they do to themselves. Its regulated because of what too many were doing to others. Noone cares how loud you play your music if you live in an isolated mountain in Idaho. But if you live in a city, there are noise ordinances at certain times for bars and residences. Drinking isn’t regulated for those under 21 because they might destroy their liver or become lifelong alcoholics. Its because they might get in a car and kill someone else.
So they can vote, so they can join the army. There’s no reason to be hung up on one age for everything. They can’t be a US representative until 25 I believe. I think its 35 for Senator or President.
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
2:06 pm
“Drinking isn’t regulated for those under 21 because they might destroy their liver or become lifelong alcoholics. Its because they might get in a car and kill someone else.”
If that were true, then why not just address the drinking and driving part? 18-21 year olds are no more likely to kill someone in a drunk driveng accident than other age groups. As a matter of fact, 30-33 I believe is the highest death rate for drunk driving. Why not just make drunk driving punishable by one year in prison for the first offense? I am totally in support of that. No, they would rather just take away the “right” of the young.
And yes, drinking alcohol is a right. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe purchasing alcohol falls under the latter two.
Mountain Man
June 28th, 2012
2:12 pm
So if we are talking about age limits for safety reasons, why have we not set a maximum age for safe driving, say, 70. Why not? Because the over-70 crowd has too much political pull. No matter how many people are killed by aged drivers.
Currently you have to have a license to drive bigger, heavier vehicles, unless it happens to be a RV. Any 75-year old can drive a 40-foot long RV that is 15,000 lbs and 8 feet wide on a regular drivers license, with no special training whatsoever. Take away that right as a safety issue? Not on your life, they VOTE.
AlreadySheared
June 28th, 2012
4:24 pm
@Mountain Man,
Some folks believe essentially that the only things which are yours are those things which teh government allows you to keep, and THEY will let you know what those things are.
To people like bu2, the idea that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” is a quaint anachronism. To these folks, if we can increase the greater good by limiting some individual freedoms, then we should, by all means, go for it.
Anonmom
June 28th, 2012
11:46 pm
Throw stones if you want but I think we should legalize drugs and stop spending billions and trillions on the drug war too — (hey, anyone following gun walker in Mexico– it’s a version of the drug war….) — If we were to legalize drugs –say let “weed” be legal and regulated ala cigarettes and alcohol with the same rules and stigmas and then tax it so government gets the money and it can’t be laced with stuff… and you couldn’t hurt anyone when you took the stuff and (no, I’ve never done it) — then you took the harder stuff and had it available through doctors with prescriptions that could only go to addicts and comes with rehab and counseling then maybe we would save a lot of money, clear the jails of folks who are there on crimes that aren’t “harming” others (make room for the criminals who are harming others) –… bring the drinking age down to rational (18? 16?) and make the driving age higher…. that would make much more sense to me. Okay, throw stones…..
Ole Guy
June 29th, 2012
1:50 pm
They wanna be “big people”…letum be big people and, in the process, learn how to handle “big people” ways. One of the most important big people skills I learned…albiet in the 60s military…was driving with one eye open so as not to “get the multiple ditches confused”. In the hindsight of many years, I would quip that I probably would not have flown half the missions I did if I had been sober.
While it’s easy…ala nancy reagan…to simply say “just say no”, it’s far far more important to learn how to be a responsible adult while sidesteping the landmines of reality. I can’t believe half the crap I pulled, in my wayward 20s, and woke up the next morning with nothing but a “bad head”. Was booze-fueled behavior, then or now, justified? Certainly not. However, the big…no, make that “humongus”…difference…there was, once upon a time, a little something called CONSEQUENCE…something which, somehow, tended to (let’s call it) modulate our behaviors. I’m not alltogether sure if that sense of consequence is anything more, today, than just another ole fashioned quantness.
If the kid, away from the guidance of “big people”, can learn to accept the responsibilities of big people, well and good. If, on the other hand, the kid behaves like a kid the minute he’s outa sight of big people, well, he’s got far bigger challenges than going to college.
Quite frankly, the campus visits are quite useless and serve no real purpose. The first time I saw a college campus was 3 days after my release from active duty; I was there, not to “visit” the campus, but to register for classes which were scheduled to start the next day. Whynhell do you folks insist on the “toe in the pool” approach to college? Just jump in and start swimming for cryin out loud!
JacketFan
July 5th, 2012
12:17 pm
Two pennies of anecdotal nothingness:
My sole college visit was to the one school I wanted to attend – a small Methodist church in the North Georgia Mountains (ahem). It was a weekend visit, with us spending the night in the dorms on a Friday and Saturday night. Both nights we treated to impromptu parties in the woods above the campus planned by current students attending summer classes. I had a great time, got to socialize with future classmates and “upper” classmen (it was a 2-year college at the time) and learned more about what to expect at the college from those conversations over lukewarm keg beer and cigarettes than anything the orientation leaders had planned for us. It’s a rite of passage. Now, can teenagers drink irresponsibly and over do it? Absolutely. But, so do a lot of grown folks (a trip out to the bars in Midtown, VaHi, EAV, etc. will prove that). I agree with the first commenter – we Americans have a real bug in our butt when it comes to drinking and it does nothing to curb this behavior.
JacketFan
July 5th, 2012
12:17 pm
that should read, “small Methodist college”