Unfortunately for some parents, the
actions of their children can have major consequences for them. But at a certain point, parents need to stop
being blamed for the mistakes of their children and punishment should be placed
squarely on the shoulders of the minor.
But when it comes to underage drinking, when is that point? One study
reported that 70% of teenagers have had a least one drink by the time they
reach the age of eighteen.
There will always be a debate on the
topic of underage drinking and parental responsibility. On the one hand, there is the argument that parents should have the
freedom to allow their kids to do what they want when it is at their own home
and taking this approach will help to limit abuse later on. On the other hand is the argument that, in
allowing their children to drink, they are communicating disrespect to legal
authority and shaping bad habits.
With graduation and prom season upon
us, issues surrounding social host law have become more prominent, especially
with the recent publicity surrounding two Harvard
Medical professors who were arrested when teenagers were found drinking at
their daughter’s graduation party. The
parents maintain that they told their daughter and her fiends that there would
be no drinking at the party and did not know that alcohol was being consumed by
the minors.
Social
host laws are laws that impose liability on parents (or the hosts) who
allow underage drinking on their property.
As the host of the party, they are under a duty to be aware of what is
going on and make sure there is no illegal activity occurring. Thus, legal liability is placed on both the
person consuming the beverage and on the person furnishing the beverage. Additionally, the social host may be found
liable for injuries that a third party sustains if the injury can be traced
back to the hosts and serves as the cause of the accident. The laws relating to social hosts vary
dramatically from state to state and are also heavily dependant on the
circumstances of the underage drinking.
I think that there is and should be tremendous leeway for how parents want to raise their children and what they want to expose them to. That being said, I don’t think that parents should condone underage drinking- especially when it involves kids other than their own. The bottom line is that it is illegal and to knowingly allow for minors to partake in it makes them just as much of a law breaker as their children. In the end, it is the parents and not the teenager that is the biggest loser in these types of cases and that should be something these parents keep in mind when they throw a party with alcohol.
By: Violet Petran
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