Staying Sober

Published: May 4, 2010:
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100504/OPINION01/5040314/1038/OPINION01

Mistrust feeds on itself, creating wider mistrust.

That's what school officials at Bellows Falls Union High School learned after considering, then tabling, plans to use an alcohol sensor for students arriving at this year's junior prom.

After the School Board tabled the proposal, the American Legion decided not to let the school use its hall in Chester for the dance. American Legion members said the organization was worried about liability issues related to the use of alcohol by kids, though a state liquor control official said there was no greater liability problem with the junior prom than with any wedding or bar mitzvah.

The plan to subject students at the dance to a breath test struck some School Board members as insulting. It is a signal the school does not trust students enough to conduct themselves properly and undermines the students' trust that school officials will treat them with respect. In this way mistrust poisons relationships.

Yet the problem of alcohol is itself a kind of poison. There is no denying that the consumption of alcohol kills too many teens, and if it doesn't kill them, it makes them behave stupidly. Health Department figures show that a high percentage of high school-age students drink, including many who admit to dangerous binge drinking.

Worry, concern, even mistrust, are warranted on the part of adults trying to keep kids alive, safe and non-self-destructive. But people in positions of authority — parents, school officials — are engaged in a fight that goes way beyond them. It goes to a society that promotes alcohol consumption as a sort of magic elixir. No one who watches television can say that beer advertising doesn't encourage teenagers to drink.

Sometimes parents themselves are conflicted on the question of drinking. They did it when they were young, and they feel hypocritical coming down too hard on their kids. There is an unspoken assumption that kids will be kids, and all we can do is hope for the best.

Against this tide of misguided thinking, schools in Vermont have been wrestling with how to treat students at official functions. Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester decided in March it would use a breath-analyzing alcohol-detection machine at all school dances. The decision did not create the same sort of furor as the decision at Bellows Falls, though the issues are similar.

"There was a pretty strong sentiment that the people sneaking around drinking kind of ruin it for everyone," said Headmaster Mark Tashjian. He acknowledged that use of the device caused some to ask, "Is that the kind of school we want to be?"

"No, it's definitely not the kind of school we want to be," he said. "But I know for certain we don't want to be the kind of school where it's OK to show up inebriated for a school function."

It is a dilemma: The school doesn't want dances to be overrun by drunken kids, and it doesn't want to become Big Brother, subjecting everyone to the assumption of guilt.

Schools are searching for a response that rests somewhere between a hands-off approach and the heavy hand. Most students expect school officials to pay attention and keep control; they respect them for it and enjoy a better time when order is maintained.

But a light hand often works better than a heavy hand. Treating students with respect is essential to winning their respect, which doesn't mean coddling them or fearing them. It means expecting them to behave properly and responding firmly when they don't.

A light hand probably doesn't go so far as imposing a TSA-style security cordon to test for alcohol at the door to the dance. Watchfulness and low tolerance for foolishness could probably do the job, especially since students acknowledge that much of the prom night drinking occurs after the dance itself.

Teens need to remember lesson number one: Your parents and teachers want you to stay alive. That's what this is about. And they want you to learn to have fun without behaving like a knucklehead. Doing without the breath test is a good way of showing that parents are not going to take their fears too far. But for the teens to do without the booze is a good way to show that the breath analyzer wasn't necessary in the first place.