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It's not encouraging personal responsibility; it's discouraging students from getting help for friends who may be in a life-threatening situation.
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<p>if you drink enough to walk back to your dorm tipsy and the cops find you, you get in trouble, but if you drink enough to go to the hospital, you're safe and don't get in trouble?. Right, that's fair.</p>
<p>accept the consequences for your actions. I don't buy at all that if you drink too much and die that someone else could be held repsonsible, unless they forced you to drink. Normal people, sober or not, are not in a position to make a definitive call on whether or not someone needs medical help.</p>
<p>I don't buy at all that if you drink too much and die that someone else could be held repsonsible, unless they forced you to drink.</p>
<p>Bartenders are held liable if they served someone who was found to have been already intoxicated, adults are liable if a minor gets into an accident after leaving their property, if they used substances there * even if the adults were not there at the time* some countries even have bystander laws where if you don't intervene, you could be held liable</p>
<p>However- you should meet my mother- she didn't call 911 when my father began having a seizure because she wanted to teach him a lesson-he later went into a coma and died
In my mind- she should have been charged at minimum with negligence, as should anyone, who sees someone in need- who they could have assisted, but ignored</p>
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He says it is common knowledge on campus that hospital=suspension.
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<p>That is laughable, although I guess you don't find it funny. Seems to me they only want kids who can hold their liquor. Better to go to Elon as an experienced drinker who knows how much to drink without needing to go to the hospital. Not a good college choice for the inexperienced drinker who could OD at their first college party, wind up at the hospital and get suspended. So high school drinking is an important EC for attending Elon, that is, if you intend to have a social life at Elon. Uh-oh... what if you pass out and smash your head? Is your hospital visit presumed to be alcohol-related? </p>
<p>"No! Don't take me to the hospital!!! Just leave me here lying in my own vomit. I'll be OK."</p>
<p>I think it's a terrible policy on both counts; its based on an odd distinction: that getting very drunk is not really a big deal but several more drinks than that is intolerable. And it will doubtless cause students to err on the side of letting friends sleep it off when in fact they may need medical attention.</p>
<p>If there is, indeed, NOT more to this story, then Elon is making a very serious error in judgment in instituting this policy. As Tarhunt said, they are playing with fire. Any policy which would discourage students from seeking aid for an intoxicated friend is not only ill-advised but very dangerous.</p>
<p>If this is the policy, it is surprising. At son's school, if a student is brought in for alcohol overdose, the patient and those that checked him in are not penalized. The over-indulger though receives medical treatment and is referred to a mandatory counseling or alcohol education type session. There appears to be (or at least the students think there are) more repercussions (beyond morally) for allowing a student to remain in danger and not seeking treatment.</p>
<p>If this is indeed Elon's policy, it does not seem to be consistent with best practices -- which leads me to wonder what else Elon is doing wrong.</p>
<p>I've thought about this one long and hard. It would be wonderful if our kids were truly educated about alcohol and drug risks - if they knew about the impacts of alcohol poisoning and what to do if they saw it, if they knew about the longer term impacts of youth drinking, if they knew generally speaking about genetic risks and those that might or might not be attached to their specific family situations, if they knew what moderate drinking actually looked like, and were able to make reasonable decisions based upon the best available information and best practices.</p>
<p>The reality is that we don't live in that world. Few 30-year-old adults could do all that I've described above, so to expect it from 18-22 year olds -- most of whom have gone from the bubble of their high schools to the bubble of their colleges -- is going too far (especially when coupled with the sense of immortality that many teens carry around on their shoulders.)</p>
<p>Luckily, they are enrolled in terrific educational institutions. Now if these institutions would only act like it.</p>
<p>"Jackson said very few Elon students are hospitalized for excessive drinking, typically 12 to 15 students each year. Jackson said not all of the students who are taken to the hospital necessarily required hospitalization."</p>
<p>So 12-15 are hospitalized, and more (likely many more) are brought to the hospital, and more, likely many more than that, SHOULD have been brought but aren't. Hello - are there any educators out there?</p>
<p>Anyone that argues in favor of this policy is idealistic and wrong. This is asking college students to make choices for their friends that could result in the loss of thousands of dollars and expulsion from school or could result in the death of students. Alcohol poisoning is scary enough, why add to it?</p>
<p>Personally, I do not know if I could bring a friend to a hospital knowing that they would be kicked out of school if I did. I think the people that would say they have no moral reservations about the issue are either lying or can't empathize.</p>
<p>Adults are responsible for minors, but are they responsible for the actions of other adults?</p>
<p>You might not be able to intervene if you don't understand what the situation is.</p>
<p>Likely, your father did not choose to have a seizure, unlike someone who chooses to load up on alcohol. Though if he did choose somehow, I would argue that that was his decision.</p>
<p>Again... should the punishment for being tipsy and walking back to your dorm and getting stopped by the cops be worse than the punishment (or lack of punishment) for drinking so much that you go to the emergency room?</p>
<p>ETA: When I think of some of the parties I went to back in the day, it's a miracle no one died. We would have had no idea how to tell if someone had alcohol poisoning, and worry about someone getting in trouble probably would have trumped everything else. I'm going to join the crowd that thinks Elon is headed for a tragedy.</p>