Once again in our small community a young teenager has died from alcohol poisoning. A high school sophomore died last night from consuming alcohol with four or five other young men, two of them his brothers, and all under the legal age of 21. The sixteen year old who died had a blood alcohol level of .353, almost four times the legal limit of .08. This is at least the fourth or fifth such death in our city in less than a year.
Why oh why do teenagers engage in such risky behaviors? When will they ever learn? When are we going to figure out how to help them? We cannot let this continue! Graduations are this next week, and with several high schools in the community, how many other young kids will put themselves in similar situations in their celebrations of completing this part of their education? How many parents will furnish the kegs and cases for graduation parties for these underage drinkers? How many more lives have to be cut short before we all wake up and do something to stop these senseless behaviors?
This community doesn't seem to be able to figure out what to do. What is your community doing to curtail underage drinking? Please, if anyone has found something that seems to be working, let us know. We cannot continue to let our kids drink themselves to death!
1 comment:
I didn't write on this yesterday for I knew if I got started my comment would be as long or longer than YOUR post! I spent many years as an officer not only working DUI (OKLAHOMA has DUI and DWI) enforcements. I spent my whole law enforcement life trying to keep kids especially but adults also, safe from drinking and driving. But when I joined the DARE program I found it so necessary to educate the kids about binge drinking. We will NOT EVER be able to save lives long as the courts, enforcement and parents don't take it serious. It is stated we have a no tolerance for it here in OK. Well we still allow a kid to check .02 before they can be charged with DUI as a minor. Are you kidding me? .02? No tolerance? Bull, you are still allowing them to drink.I just don't understand it. But then I was a very strict parent. I think there should be consequences, and they sould be consistant. Did I fail at that? Of course I did at times. But when I caught my daughter drinking her senior year, she got grounded severely, and the trust was gone pretty much forever. We had a kid in Enid kill not only himself but two others in a head on crash while he was drunk as a SR. all the kids knew where he got the alcohol but NOBODY would tell. And not ONE parent made them tell. I can not tell you how angry I get at parents that let their kids drink and then make no consequences. Ok, I will stop! Sorry.
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