Teen drinking

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Hi all,

Suppose I am at a party with teen drinking, or I know when and where teens will be drinking. Do I have any moral obligation to ‘squeal’ on them to the police and their parents?

These situations have both happened to me and I don’t know what I should do :-/ it can be extra confusing when good friends partake in this 😦

coolduude:cool:
 
I’m not sure that I have the answer but I often wonder what I would tell the wife whose husband was killed by someone who I knew was misbehaving and failed to take action. I’m not sure about alerting the police but someone should know. I’m not sure how old you are but if you are a minor you might discuss this with your parents and seek their advice. That is a tough call but I’m sure that some here might think otherwise and advise you as such… God bless… teachccd 🙂
 
I’m in college, so most parties I could go to have minors drinking, so I don’t go. I had to skip a class party (in a professional program) because I wasn’t comfortable with that. I just found an excuse to be busy. Then I don’t have to worry about snitching or not because I don’t know. And I probably wouldn’t tell the police because suspicion will probably fall on you, either that you participated in drinking illegally or you bought alcohol for minors. And as for parents it would probably depend on how much danger your friends are putting themselves and others in.
 
What’s the drinking age in your state? Here in Quebec it’s 18, so “teen” drinking is the norm, and perfectly legal for the last two years of the teen years.
 
Having been in that situation myself in my late teen years, I would suggest that you report it to the police. Perhaps you may be able to report it to the police anonymously if you do not want the other people from the party to know it was you who reported it. Let me give you an example of why:

In my first semester of college, I suffered severe consequences because I did not report underage drinking. I would try to socialize with other people who lived on my floor, and sometimes I would be talking to a group of people in someone’s room and people would start drinking. I would excuse myself after a few minutes and return to my room, but other people who lived on that floor always saw me leaving and thought that I had been drinking with them. One night, because of a medical condition I’ve had since elementary school, I was vomiting in the bathroom, and someone reported me to a resident assistant. The RA didn’t call the police that night, but if he had I would have been clear because they would have found that there was no alcohol in my body. However, the RA did report it to his supervisor the next day, along with the fact that he saw me coming out of rooms where he suspected drinking several times. Although I told the truth to the supervisor when he called me down for a meeting, the supervisor said that he could not believe me because there was too much evidence against me.

My reputation was completely damaged, even though I didn’t actually participate in the drinking, because people started calling me an alcoholic, I lost all my friends on that floor, I was given a warning notice that I would be kicked out of the dorms and that it would affect my academic records if there was any more evidence of me drinking, and the school notified my parents because of a loophole in the law, which means my family looks at me as a liar and they think i have a drinking problem now. If I had called the campus police, people would have avoided me and called me a snitch, but I would have had immunity from any legal or academic consequences. I can tolerate people not liking me if the reason is because I stood up for what was right.
 
Hi all,

Suppose I am at a party with teen drinking, or I know when and where teens will be drinking. Do I have any moral obligation to ‘squeal’ on them to the police and their parents?

These situations have both happened to me and I don’t know what I should do :-/ it can be extra confusing when good friends partake in this 😦

coolduude:cool:
if you are the host, are driving with one of them or are an adult with some responsibility toward them you probably have a legal as well as moral obligation to step in.

example: in HS DD#2 was invited to a party where members of the sports team were guests, there was drinking and other stuff, the parents of the hostess did nothing so she wiselyy called the coach (she was also a trainer for the team, so had some responsibility albeit as a student, not adult) because apart from other issues, she new their eligibility to play the next day as well as obviously their performance could be affected. He called the police, since drugs were also in evidence by that time, to prevent anyone from driving away, and the parents of all on his team. The team was disqualified from the meet btw. bottom line, if you also are a minor get the help of a responsible adult to intervene.

if it is happening right now, and there is danger of somebody driving away drunk, do call the police by all means. If the parents are not home and there is prospect of minors being at risk, also call. Repercussions? you bet, but their problem not yours.
 
It’s 21 all across the USA 🙂
Well technically the public possession and purchase age is 21. Not every state has a consumption age. Even so those that do often have different exceptions. However, all 50 consider teen drinking parties illegal. I’d be careful if you go to a private school or hold certain positions in your school, because if the popos show up and you’re there they may report it to your school. I don’t like to got to teen drinking parties simply because I don’t want too get caught in association with them. They’re so unpredictable. I’d rather go to small get togethers where I know my friends.

If you want my advice, I wouldn’t want to be the dude that kept quiet while some people get drunk off their rocker drive home and kill themselves and/or someone else. If you report it, understand you do have the right to remain anonymous. If you have the ability to preserve human life, do so.
 
Something that you may question doing here is whether or not it is your place to get involved. I can understand that part of your questioning.

Ethically advising someone relative could be a good idea yes, but not necessarily informing the police. I feel that may be one step too far in the situations that you have outlined.

Such a thing though should be pretty obvious at the time when it comes to what you feel you should do. Conventionally I would go with your gut instinct. Intrinsically you should know if what you are doing is for the better. - In short, how you feel you should act in such an instance should reveal the very answer to your own question.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche.
 
Can you drive?..Then volunteer to be a designated driver.

If not,then ask around and try to find sober people who can drive.

Confiscate the drunks car keys so they can’t drive.

Or if you see a bunch leave in one car call and report that you saw a erratic driver and you think they may be drunk.

You can do your part to help the situation yourself…You don’t have to involve to police and snitch on everybody at the party.
 
You can do your part to help the situation yourself…You don’t have to involve to police and snitch on everybody at the party.
Yeah I agree with you. If someone starts snitching all the time to the police (which could get someone in a lot of trouble) they’ll end up not trusting you and disliking you, and I kind of question the motives of someone literally calling the police and telling them that there are teenagers drinking. It’s not really a nice thing to do. You can get caught teen drinking once in PA and lose your driver’s license for a year. I don’t find that a fair punishment…but definetely offer as much help as you can and prevent any drunken person from driving
 
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