Vigilance on Teen Drinking

California State University is considering the adoption of guidelines to help curb student drinking on its 23-campus system, which includes Cal State Fullerton. That’s a good idea.

But many students start drinking before college. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, half of the nation’s junior and senior high school students drink at least monthly. The California Highway Patrol reports that car crashes are the leading cause of death for 15- to 20-year-olds, and the latest statistics indicate that about half of car crashes involving teens also involve alcohol. Statewide, there are about 600 teen-related traffic deaths a year.

Those are sobering statistics. They take on even more significance now. If you’ve been out and about the county on recent weekends, you’ve seen high school seniors and their dressed-up dates in restaurants for their pre-prom dinners. May and June is the prom and graduation season, a period the CHP sees as one of the most dangerous times of the year for this age group.

In 1999, MADD reports, more than 1,000 people across the nation died because of crashes involving teenagers driving drunk after school prom or graduation partying. Those are needless and avoidable deaths.

Such tragic accidents led to the now-popular “grad night” parties that are designed to save lives by keeping teenagers away from alcohol and off the road. The “safe and sober” graduation party was born in Orange County at Valencia High School in Placentia in 1957. After one senior was killed and another paralyzed in an accident coming home from private graduation parties, school officials, parents and the community decided to hold an all-night graduation party on campus.

The idea spread to Laguna Beach High. Then, after two deaths and several injuries caused by graduation drinking and driving, Newport Harbor High adopted the approach. Other high schools in the county and beyond tried the idea.

Parents plan a year in advance for the all-night themed party for graduates. The concept has two key components: It is alcohol-free and students must remain at the party for its duration. There is no slipping out to the parking lot or leaving early to hit other unchaperoned celebrations.

Parents of seniors who decide to skip the school celebrations for private parties should be sure that safe transportation plans are made and that the evening will be alcohol-free.

And celebrating graduates shouldn’t defy the grim grad night accident statistics by drinking--or riding with any driver who does. To police, who will be especially alert for drunk drivers, alcohol is not a “rite of passage.” For minors, it’s an offense, as it is to anyone furnishing it to them.

Graduation night provides lifelong memories. They shouldn’t be blurred by alcohol or marred by the tragic consequences of driving drunk.