Teens, drinking and death
Tonight, Lowell High School’s senior prom will be held at the Memorial Auditorium beginning at 6:30. If it’s anything like past proms, it will include hundreds of beautiful, stylishly dressed young people out in droves to celebrate the culmination of their education in the Lowell Public Schools. If you’re near downtown at that time, swing by to catch a glimpse of our youngsters as they promenade into the auditorium dressed in their finest. You won’t be disappointed, as it is truly inspiring to see the diversity, creativity and sheer exuberance of our youth. School administrators, teachers and police officers will be on hand to wish the youngsters well and do what they can to insure the festivities are fun, safe, and free of alcohol or drugs. If you haven’t had the drugs and alcohol talk with your own teens recently, do it again. This week’s Boston Globe includes all-too-common heartbreaking accounts of young lives lost or ruined due to a lethal mix of teens and alcohol, such as the Lynn boy, who struck and killed a woman after his prom—despite extensive efforts to curtail drinking from school administrators, and this one about the woman who speaks at area schools about the tragedy of losing her teenage daughter after she wandered away during an underage drinking party. Speaking of underage drinking, the May meeting of the Friends of LHS had an eye-opening presentation about the risks to parents when underage drinking occurs in their homes either deliberately or inadvertently—whether or not anyone gets hurt. Underage drinking is against the law, and parents will be prosecuted and held accountable if it happens in their homes. Also, as the Lynn example shows, even when adults do all they can, the ultimate decision rests on the teen, and that is why the most important change is one of attitude towards alcohol, and the adult’s role is to model appropriate behavior along with giving lectures about responsibility.