Someone did point out to me that there are states where this is legal. To be honest, I am rather astounded, but the law is the law.
Correct. One of the common misconceptions of the drinking laws is that people believe the federal government pressured the states to raise the drinking age to 21. This is not true. They only raised the public possession and purchase age to 21 years old. (Since a person must posses a drink in order to consume it) However, many states took it upon themselves to raise the consumption age to 21 as well. In addition to that ** those states **that did raise the consumption age to 21 have many exceptions. They often include locations and the presence of family members. Those states that do not explicitly prohibit underage consumption of alcohol basically leave the decision to the adult in charge of the minor. Think that’s crazy? Well it gets even more insane. Some states, while they may or may not prohibit underage consumption, and may or may have exceptions to prohibiting of underage consumption may or may not prohibit internal possession. In other words, whilst it might be illegal for a minor to consume alcohol, it might not be illegal to have any amount of alcohol present in his or her system. States that pass internal possession laws can fine and arrest underage drinker by testing for any BAC. However to my knowledge all 50 states prohibit a person under 21 who has a noticable BAC from operating a moter vehicle. One thing you must understand about the U.S. is that our laws are not very explicit when it comes to every aspect of underage drinking. I will say that what the OP’s son did was not only illegal, but extremely careless, and that none of my post attempts to justify it.
Wow! Wish the Catholic school where I live was that strict with their policy.We had an incident happen at a school dance and no one got expelled…
*Our Catholic high school here - after multiple incidents of drunk students showing up at proms and dances - started using a breathalyzer at the entrance. (They also do random drug testing at school, which is another kettle of fish entirely…)
They really CAN’T mess around, legally speaking. Too many schools have been sued for problems over the years. As a friend of mine said, “Catholic schools now have to worship at the altar of safe environment restrictions.”
Your priest sounds right on the moneyThanks for all the thoughts. My husband and I were concerned about the sin of detraction, I understand your point there. However we felt the safety of living persons beat out my sons right to privacy.
However, the way we solved this was through the marvels of the priesthood. The school’s formation direction and dean of boys is a priest. We went to him, with a list of the attendees at the party. He suggested (and we agreed) that this conversation we had with him be treated like a confession. He would remove from our shoulders the burden of calling the other parents. Instead HE called them, and what he said was “Your son/ daughter was at a party Saturday night at the home of another student, who shall not be named. The parents were out of town and did not know about it. Alcohol was served. The ball is now in your court as parents.” So, yes parents were notified, but no, we are not in the firing line for legal troubles.
The priest will also gather the students involved for a conversation at school during formation time, one on one. He has also asked my son to come to confession, and that has already occurred.
In addition, the school (under his direction) will neither suspend nor expel them, because (a) my son has never been in trouble before and (b) it did not happen on school grounds or a school outing.
God, I thank you for our priests!
And yes, our son is grounded forever and lost his license to us etc etc etc. Picked a terrible time to screw up and get grounded, right before a two week break…
AuntMama
Ahhh, how well I remember. In fact, according to my latest calculations, I am STILL grounded from a stunt I pulled back in the 80’s.
Christ forgives…Parents never forget…:tsktsk: