Are you kidding me?

[reldnahkram]

Haddonfield teens going to extremes

I heard some stories from when I was that age but not involved in that scene, but nothing like this. And I'd heard some stories about younger generations, but this is a few steps beyond that. There never was much accountability, and I guess from there it's not too hard to have things go downhill, and fast. It's good to see someone making a stand, but I wonder how much parents' attitudes of "it couldn't be my kid, don't punish my kid" will hinder the whole process.

Comments

[god-of-belac.livejournal.com]

Wow.

The solutions they mentioned at the bottom of the article seem unlikely to succeed, if I recall how I thought 7 years ago. What is needed is serious consequences, as in not-going-to-that-elite-college-after-all, explain-to-your-employer-your-criminal-record, two-summer-jobs-to-pay-the-fine consequences.

[sinsofthedove.livejournal.com]

And then they need to hit parents hard with the reality stick, too. Have you ever been in the position of telling the rich, entitled parents of rich, entitled kids that they or their kids cannot have something they want? It ain't pretty. When I did, the matter at hand was some mother not having submitted a form in time, and thus not getting to place a full-page ad in the yearbook. Not a huge deal. Imagine if, instead, you're telling them that no, their child can't go to Harvard after all? Unpleasantness.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

This is, in fact, the reason why nothing will change. Or rather, if things change, it will be the less privileged students, where as the children with wealthy parents (of which there are quite a few in town, believe you me) will continue to misbehave and nothing will come of it.

[loaktree.livejournal.com]

That is partly because the wealthier people in town have all of the power, the "authority figures" such as the police, school administrators, etc., have no back bones, and everyone in that town is so sue-happy that all of the tax money goes into defending the cases. Something really serious needs to happen to that town and Colombi being aggressive for a couple of months will not get enough of the crap that has been swept under the carpet for decades out. It was an interesting place to go to school in, but my favorite thing about high school was driving home every night and washing my hands of Haddonfield.

[god-of-belac.livejournal.com]

It's easier to do that if you are in fact Harvard, which is who I was hoping would be in charge of that sort of thing.

But yes, I can imagine the level of entitlement bitchism that comes out of these parents.

[uncleamos]

That solution is a trap. On the one hand, kids will never believe that will actually come down on them, and on the other hand it really is an excessive punishment. Add in that they know you feel that it's excessive, and they're even less likely to give a shit.

I suppose that a few of them might start paying attention after some of their peers are screwed, but who will be screwed? I'm not going support my kids being screwed so that someone else can learn their lesson early and head on to Yale and so on, and neither is everyone else.

What we really need is a combination of a drinking age of 18 and parent and family dynamics that are open and supportive and not conducive to wild parties behind people's backs. This would involve changing the common approach to parenting and also youth culture, but it would be worth it.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Yeah - that would help.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

I don't think lowering the drinking age to 18 will help—most high school students are under 18 anyway, so it will still be an act of rebellion. Teaching responsible use of alcohol might help, but really only if the entire culture (not just youth culture) stops viewing getting completely wasted as something fun.

[god-of-belac.livejournal.com]

Criminal trespass, breaking and entering(for some), willful destruction of property...those are actual crimes. Their presence on the record of someone less well-connected can screw up their future.

I also think you're underestimating the effect of stories about the guy who "set up that party last year, and dude, he went to jail for a couple months...I think he was a senior, but now he's living in his parents' house...yeah, I saw him working at Crate and Barrel last week..."

[reldnahcire.livejournal.com]

If I recall my limited experience at HMHS correctly, instead of no cut athletics, HMHS needs to kick up academic standards. The shit people could get away with and still pull in a 3.3 or so was F'in ridiculous. I think I had a 98 average for a year in World Civ, which I played games on my Palm through the whole class and was the only one answering when the teacher asked questions. I wonder if HMHS kids would sober up if they actually had to work for their grades?

[sinsofthedove.livejournal.com]

That seems pretty realistic. I never (ever!) drank in high school, partly because I didn't know anyone who did, but also because it was pretty generally expected that with most teachers you wuold be in deep shit if you showed up incapable of participating, and it wasn't because you had been up all night writing a paper.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Brendan has a story about coming in to class one morning pretty hung over, and Mrs. Barth made some quip about 'hard night last night'? He mumbles yes, and then she says something like it was a hard night for me too, or something like that. Then again, Barth was pretty awesome.

Of course, it's generally pretty hard to get kicked out of public school, and it's pretty easy to sit in the back, never say anything, and pull a C as long as you're not actually falling asleep in class.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that's hard. The school's under a lot of pressure to keep its lofty ranking, and upping the academic standards will not help that. It will also be expensive, hiring more and better teachers. And that isn't easy.

[ccommack]

My proposal would be to change the penalty for a drunk and disorderly: specifically, requiring the kids to *completely* sober up in the drunk tank. BAC <0.01, or you don't go home, parents bailing you out or no. It'll hit the binge drinkers harder than the more casual kind, which seems fair.

[liegt-am-meer.livejournal.com]

Oh, Haddonfield! Good to hear from you!
Aaaanyway, yes, it would be nice if privileged white rich kids didn't face different consequences for crimes than everyone else. It would also be nice if they had any IDEA how privileged they were, but I'm not holding my breath.
Also, just like anywhere else, privileged or not, kids are going to do stupid shit if they're bored and aimless. They need something to do, some kind of community, and some kind of involvement with the outside world. Of course, if I remember my former fellow residents correctly, most of them had no desire to interact with the outside world...

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but these kids were stupid enough to do things that they couldn't get away with. The trick is knowing what you can get away with, and not doing anything more.