NJ high school to test teens for alcohol consumption

[tolbiny]

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I am open allowing 18-20 year olds the ability to buy booze. If I was king, I'd make the drinking, voting and draft age 19 (guarantees they are out of high school). There is a big difference emotionally between a 16 year old and an 18 year. 16 year olds don't need shots of jack Daniels to socialize.


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This is why you sound silly, in two parts.
1. Forbidding drinking untill someone is out of high school is THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY to go about it. Make sure that the second that there is no more adult supervision that they suddenly have legal access to dangerous things? People don't suddenly become mature because they are 18, or 19 or 21. The become mature because they experience things and learn from them.

2. Passing a law and telling people what to do doesn't stop these things, it just encourages kids to become experts at hiding [censored] from their parents, and encourages them to indulge to greater lengths when they do get their hands on it.

[Klompy]

This won't work, and it will just be a big waste of money. Anyone know if MADD is behind this plan that is bound to fail just like all of their other ones?

[4 High]

This a horrible waste of money and a monumental invasion of privacy.

[TheCommieBear]

In Soviet Usa schools drugtests you!

Started drinking when i was 12 and i'm doing ok, i've never committed a crime and i'm working full time.
This year i have been drunk once so no drinking problem for me.

When my brother moved to the US it was easier to get weed than alcohol so he started smoking instead :-)

I also want to know if the US is the only country you can go to a war and come home a cripple and be refused a drink?

[ActionJeff]

Underage drinking is great. I just graduated from high school last summer, and some of my best memories involve drinking excessively. I can't imagine how hard much harder it would be for the average HS joe to get laid sober.

I doubt the 2006 KPHS class would have taken something like this - its a blatant invasion of privacy and breach of the students' rights.

F these facist pigs.

[Big Poppa Smurf]

Besides the obvious other issues, the school is going to be testing Monday mornings. If kids want to drink and not get caught they'll just start drinking during the school week, which is obviously both more harmful to their school work and their own safety (no weekend sleepovers to drink = more drunk driving).

At any rate it's not the job of the school system to enforce that kids don't drink underage, it's the job of the parents. As long as kids aren't doing it in school (where it is obviously the concern of the school) it's none of the schools business.

[LeapFrog]

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I also want to know if the US is the only country you can go to a war and come home a cripple and be refused a drink?

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Yeah this is pretty sick. Somehow an 18 year old is mature enough to go to war, kill, and also have other peoples lives directly depending on his actions yet can't handle drinking responsibly. Does not compute.

[critikal]

I wouldn't be surprised if alcohol related incidents go up at the school. Kids will see a 3-day weekend as their "only" opportunity to drink and drink more heavily than usual.

[MaxxDaddy]

It's pretty clear that this whole thing is absurd. I refuse to believe that underage drinking has gotten to the point to legitimize this sort of response. Look, I understand that the problem exists, but to invade the privacy of students in order to essentially do next to nothing for a large chunk of money is completely ridiculous. My mom gave me the following guidelines on drinking: "I drank back when I was 18, so I think you should be responsible enough to do the same." This was back when I was 16 or 17. She also promised that if I was hungover and she knew, she'd make sure to let me hear about it. I remember I was really sick after a party at a friend's house and I told her I was pretty hungover. She then proceeded to ask me what I had drank the night before, in complete detail. I had to make her pull over the car so I could throw up.

I agree with the vast majority of the other posters that this is a function of parenting. You should be able to raise your children so that they know their boundaries and form a trusting relationship. Schools should not be a secondary parenting institution, yet they are expected to be one when it comes to drug/alcohol use and sex.

[lippy]

Teenagers rebel. Parents don't want their children to drink. Schools teach them that drinking is bad.

You figure it out.