<p>Well, I'm posting in the parents section because I'm fulfill sort of a paternal role when it comes to my sister, and I didn't really want to bring this up with her while she's still miserable.</p>
<p>My sister (junior in high school) threw a party this weekend. Apparently it got out of control. Fast. I don't know the details, but suffice it to say the police were at the house for nearly two hours and now she has a court date. No one was injured, but there was undoubtedly consumption of alcohol by minors taking place in the house. I feel bad for her, as I really do believe her when she says she was making a strong effort to prevent this from happening. But you know how it works...ten kids show up, they call their friends, friends call friends...next thing you know, eighty kids are making way too much noise, drinking alcohol, and suddenly the police show up.</p>
<p>Will this in any way effect her college application? I'm sorry I don't know about what's she's being charged with, but I'm assuming she won't be going to prison. Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>Not at all. My brother had a similar thing but he didn't mention it at all because there was nothing on the application that demanded knowing any details like that.</p>
<p>best immediate response: do what WashDad said</p>
<p>longer term, hopefully the parents can reassess what happens in their home, the level of supervision they provide, and so on</p>
<p>As a younger sister, when I was in trouble it meant the world to me to have my big brother in my corner, even when I was WRONG. He was also sensitive to innuendo, as you were when you said she tried to stop this all but was up against it. You'd understand all of that. Stay sympathetic to her and check in as often as you're able in this busy college week; she needs you.</p>
<p>Ditto WashDad & P3T. This is a situation where the outcome could vary depending on how it is handled now. Better to spend some time (and money) prior to the court date to make sure your sister's case is handled properly.</p>
<p>I always feel sorry for kids who end up in this kind of mess. Not that your sister was totally blameless, but these things have a way of getting out of control and often it is the kid who is somewhat naive who gets in trouble. </p>
<p>A couple of my son's friends were caught up in exactly the same situation and it did not seem to impact their college admissions situation. Of the two he was best friends with, one was not drinking, not cited by the police and is not a sr at an Ivy league university. I am not sure if the other was drinking and cited by the police. But he is also now a college senior at his first choice LAC which could be considered a safety school given his hs record.</p>
<p>Are you sure it's your minor sister who has the court date and not your parents? About 33 states have laws now that make it a misdemeanor for parents to allow drinking or allow children to be in an unsupervised situation where it can occur.</p>
<p>This happens frequently in my community and has happened to close friends and relatives. There might also be an "investigation" by the local child welfare board. Most likely though, unless there is a chronic situation, it should not have any ramifications, nor criminal ones if the facts are as you seem to think they are.</p>
<p>You - or rather your parents since you seem to be at school, need to find out exactly the charge(s) are, who is charged and what the possible outcomes are before anyone can give you sound advice.</p>
<p>It's good that you feel protective of your sister and I commend you for it, but the fact that you feel that you have to be in a parental role is troubling. Perhaps the best thing you can do is to light a fire under your parents.</p>
<p>From what I've read <em>failure</em> to disclose this could greatly impact college admissions. In other words, she will need to disclose it-- but if it looks like it's a one time thing, she can overcome it. If it is not disclosed and a college finds out, her admissions could be revoked. (They might hear about it from a guidance counselor, for example.)</p>
<p>And the message for other teens: If a party starts getting out of hand, don't try to handle it yourself! Call a neighbor, or better yet, call the police yourself! That's the best way to protect yourself, your friends (you don't really know who's doing what or how dangerous it could be), and your parents' property. And in our town, the police have said that a kid who calls is much less likely to get into trouble with them, because they have clear proof that the kid is trying to stop whatever is going on.</p>
<p>A similar thing happened with a classmate of one of my sons. Parents out of town, invites friends over, things get out of hand, police bust the party. Except in her case, there was a ton of documentation on her myspace and facebook which undermined her claim of naivete- a posting inviting everyone to her house, which were copied onto all her girlfriend's myspaces; pictures of the party on her friends' myspaces which did not help her case at all; pre-party blogs talking about how much fun it was going to be. Make sure your sister doesn't have a lot of crap like that floating around out there, although I'm not sure it would be relevant in a legal case or not. If nothing else, it could undermine her credibility.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the great responses. By starting this thread I'm not suggesting my parents are in any way being negligent, I'm just a concerned sibling with whom she would probably like to talk with more than anyone else, parents especially.</p>
<p>She's lucky that it was just a rowdy party, without anyone being injured or worse. There was a terrible party in our neighborhood two years ago that resulted in the death of a student...it's made a lot of parents think twice about leaving high school students alone for the weekend. Even if your child is well-behaved and trustworthy, the situation can quickly get beyond their control.
I agree with the "lawyer up" advice above.</p>
<p>Uh, I got a minor in consumption citation last Memorial Day weekend (age 17 at the time) and nothing really happened at all. I went into juvenile court and had a nice chat with a probation officer, who let me off with a warning to avoid unknown men at college. It's really not that big of a deal. </p>
<p>And the party I was at had parents present... but they're buddy-buddy with some bigwig on the police force, so they didn't get any charge whatsoever, and plus the police had to leave quickly because they had some other call to attend to (ah, the joys of growing up in a crime-ridden city). </p>
<p>The same thing happened near us last year with a girl who was sort of a local celebrated athlete so it was in the paper. She had a party at her house while mom and dad were away and some kids got alcohol poisoning. There is no way she couldn' t have reported it to schools because of the publicity but she got into a really good Ivy anyway.</p>
<p>Same thing happened last year with my S's friends at a party. Police showed up and wrote a bunch of citations. The kids got lawyers who got the citations dismissed if they attended alcohol education classes, which they did.
I know some of them have already been accepted to colleges this year.</p>
<p>If it was my child, I would definitely get a lawyer. If she has a court date for anything other than a traffic citation, she needs representation. I think it is better to be safe than sorry. Having a record of any sort isn't good for life in general and goes way beyond affecting one's college applications.</p>