Reality event serves to make parents aware of dangerous teen behavior

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November 19, 2009

Anonymous The Enid News and Eagle Thu Nov 19, 2009, 10:34 PM CST

Parents and adults who attended a walk-through portrayal of a high school beer and alcohol party scene may have thought they were participating in a surreal experience.

But, what they saw as teens portrayed drinking games, sexual discussions and even the tragic consequence of binge drinking is, unfortunately, all too real.

PreventionWorkz and North Central Coalition for Drug Prevention teamed up to sponsor the event in Pond Creek as an awareness project and also to bring up the issue of implementing a social host ordinance in Grant County.

Social host ordinances are aimed at holding adults responsible who sponsor drinking parties or provide the alcohol for teenagers.

Unfortunately, many parents believe kids are going to drink anyway, and they are doing kids a favor by sponsoring such parties and providing what they may believe is a “safe” environment.

Many parents today struggle with advising their children not to drink. One reason is a lot of parents did attend drinking parties when they were teens, and they feel “hypocritical” telling their children not to. Also, we have to remember prior to 1984, it was legal for 18-year-olds to consume cereal malt beverages in Oklahoma.

We know more now. We know more about alcohol’s effects on a young person than we did 20 or 30 years ago. We also have evolved into an understanding of accountability and responsibility for irresponsible behavior. We also know there are more opportunities for dangerous situations to occur because of the Internet and sexual predators.

We applaud the group for providing this kind of reality event, because it does hold up a mirror to many teens, adults and parents.

Hopefully, it will help get the message across that underage drinking is dangerous and can result in very tragic consequences.

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