<p>“Is this really true (for underage drinking)? From what I hear, obtaining alcohol and drinking is so routine, it doesn’t sound like the thrill of doing the forbidden even exists anymore.”</p>
<p>This is my experience for sure. I have never been a big drinker, but my friends always have been, and alcohol has always been readily available since like… freshman year of high school. Someone always knows someone with a willing cousin or older sibling. And then in college it gets even easier because you don’t have to wait for someones parent to go out of town, and the alcohol is very readily available even without a connection. I fully believe it is not that it is forbidden for most students (once you’ve had a drink or two you forget all about that, yet they keep going…) and more because moderate drinking isn’t any “fun.” We have a campaign here that is all about teaching students how much someone of their sex and weight, approximately, can handle drinking per hour without getting very drunk if they simply must choose to drink, and it is a mockery because that would entirely defeat the purpose of the exercise.</p>
<p>So when do you let kids grow up and become adults and learn to shoulder some responsibility on their own? What happened to turning 18 being the age of becoming a legal adult? Yes your parents are likely contributing to funding your college education, and so they should be clued in on certain things like your grades and if you’re facing expulsion, but for having a beer in your room? Come on. If they can’t be responsible for themselves after getting in trouble once, then kick 'em out and let them get eaten up by the real world. At what point will kids ever learn to face the law who won’t be as forgiving as their parents?</p>
<p>People seriously need to understand when to cut the cord… It’s one thing to lean on your parents for support for a few years after turning 18, but it’s another when a kid is 20 and their parents are expected to discipline them. At what age does it stop?</p>
I didn’t know this, either! So does this mean that parents of college students in those states retain their FERPA rights longer than the parents in the rest of the states? And do kids have to get parental permission to join the Armed Forces until they reach their state’s age of majority?</p>
<p>This is sort of insulting. You can’t censor someone’s behavior. I know our generation is apparently more attached to our parents but I don’t think agree with the tactics- whats the point of this really? People are going to find ways around things.</p>
<p>what if the violation was in regard to a minor marijuana offense?.. then how would the parents react? most likely they’d be VERY upset. but alcohol??? nah it’s cool… risking killing yourself every weekend isn’t that big of a deal, right? </p>
<p>parents and administration are blind to what really goes on at college… almost every weekend (Friday, Saturday) I see someone outside walking or at a party that is EXTREMELY sick from binge drinking… sometimes requiring ambulances and what not. whereas, you’ll see the “stoners” sitting on a couch sipping a beer and just talking. i just don’t understand how “lax” administrators and campus police are with alcohol, yet are so strict with marijuana. there needs to be a middle ground where alcohol is taken a bit more seriously and marijuana a bit less seriously, because both have different effects on a person’s body (marijuana –> lungs, brain… alcohol–> liver, brain). it just goes to show how backwards our country can be… which then could lead to the question if the drinking age was lowered and marijuana decriminalized for small offenses would there still be abuse…? probably, but it could possibly lead to less abuse in some situations… we can only speculate i guess.</p>
<p>I know that some people will not appreciate this comment, but I find it extremely ironic that Virginia Tech is the same university notifying parents about minor alcohol violations that failed to notify parents about serious mental health issues several years. Perhaps they have modified their alcohol notifications as a result of the backlash?</p>
<p>It’s very interesting about the FERPA loophole.</p>
<p>Hmmm…I’m a parent and my knee jerk reaction is YES - NOTIFY me. I do NOT want my child involved in ANY illegal activities (alcohol OR drugs or anything else). And I should get to decide if I want to pull the financial plug on her “little party”. </p>
<p>But…it doesn’t feel legal to tell me. Unless it’s because I also contracted with the university in some way, by paying for it. I haven’t enrolled a child yet, so I don’t know the ins and outs of that.</p>
<p>I do know that I once nearly got sued by a client of mine. I book travel for a girl who presents herself as “daughter of client X”. I pay for the travel, give her the tickets, she doesn’t pay me! THis was back in the day when we actually did things like this. I bill her and bill her. </p>
<p>Her Dad, a good client, then calls me because he finds out her account is in arrears. I do tell him, yes, it is…and he wants to pay it. </p>
<p>She FLIES into my office in a RAGE! She works for an attorney, how convenient. “How dare you! My boss says you have no right and he says I should sue you. This is no business of my Father’s…this is a contract between me and you!” </p>
<p>And she was right. I was very young, didn’t know or think of it that way. But she DID have credited extended based on her association. I don’t think that has any legal legs, but … it’s a mitigating factor, I hope. </p>
<p>Anyway - while I WANT them to tell parents, I wonder how it’s legal to do so.</p>
<p>It wasn’t originally legal; it became legal after Congress amended FERPA in the '90s.</p>
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<p>Not a loophole - an intentional Congressional revision to the law in response to outrage over a case at Radford University in which a college student had a first underage offense with the parents not notified, and then died as a result of a second episode.</p>
<p>Honestly though…I wonder what a parent can actually DO to/for/about it if they’re notified. It’s not like we have a ton of control at this point. You’d think a kid who wanted to please his parent wouldn’t do it in the first place, and those who are beyond “parental control”…well, you hate to think you’re “giving up”, but…that DOES happen at some point. And 18 is “legal” in much of the world, and it’s “legal” for a lot of OTHER things here, so …? We expect these kids to be “cooked” at this point. Not sure if parental notification will result in anything good happening. I’d like to think it would. But I know a star athlete who was kicked out of 3 colleges for drinking. His parents couldn’t “talk him down”.</p>
<p>The control the parents have is to stop paying for tuition. Very few of these kids are paying for school independently. There is no way that a kid kicked out of school for alcohol should be allowed to immediately enroll in another school. At least a year off is warranted of close supervision and intervention. If the athlete kicked out of 3 schools continues to be offered full rides, then I would call the school and the coach and tell them my son is not fit to be in school and that if they enroll him, they are on notice that they will held accountable if he hurts himself or others. If I had to get a lawyer involved, I would. That kid needs to be in rehab and I’d get him out of school even if it meant kidnapping him.</p>
<p>Problem is, rehabs don’t take adults who are there against their will unless it is court ordered. Even then, the addict has got to be open to it or it’s a waste of everyone’s time, imo.</p>
<p>I think there’s a big problem here. At least at my university, the standard of evidence for alcohol violations (and other disciplinary violations) is “more likely than not” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt”. I know a number of people who have been falsely convicted of alcohol violations. For example, in cases where someone is a room where everyone else is drinking (but they are not), they generally get written up for the alcohol violation. The college doesn’t perform a breathalyzer or compile any other information that would actually “prove” that a violation actually took place. So then, your parents end up getting notified about an alcohol violation of which you were actually innocent, which just isn’t right.</p>
<p>haha only on cc. what parent actually gives a **** if their kid drinks at college, its college, kids are on their own. go ahead, notify parents, what are they going to do, say “you’re grounded”. And the argument to stop paying tuition, what parent wants their child to drop out of college or hamper their efforts of academic success, for drinking no less.</p>
<p>When most of us were growing up the drinking age was 18 AND there was no mandatory seat belt law, but believe it or not kiddos, THINGS REALLY WERE DIFFERENT THEN. Not only have the laws changed, but a lot of kids didn’t have cars to drive around drunk in harming themselves or others. The punishments are stiffer and new laws are in place to protect the public from habitual offenders.</p>
<p>Truthfully, aside from refusing to pay college tuition (which doesn’t affect scholarship babies) what can we really do except remind them, email them stories, encourage them to spend the night rather than think they are “ok” to drive and tell them how much they stand to lose, including their future AND our respect when the inevitable happens?</p>
<p>This is just more evidence that Alcohol is WAY more destructive than Marijuana. Not trying to get off topic, but I was reading Northstarmom’s post on the CC student who died from alcohol poisoning and it got me thinking. I feel so sorry for the student and his family, he is not the only one and will not be the last. So many great people are lost to alcohol.</p>
<p>I go to a local 4-year state college now, as a high school student dually-enrolled, and we had a debate on the legalization of marijuana in my composition 2 class. It was so surprising to see how many kids smoked marijuana, but even more surprisingly the amount who did not condone alcohol use/abuse. I’d say over 50% of the class smokes marijuana. It’s so frustrating to see minor possessions of marijuana ruin lives by getting in trouble with the law, whereas alcohol is perfectly legal yet gives the ultimate punishment – death.</p>
<p>As a great man once said, “Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.”</p>
<p>As for the original topic, I really don’t think parents should be notified of minor alcohol violations. I don’t get what all the hoopla about it is. I mean, a note home is also better than being kicked out of school.</p>
<p>Ack27 - I agree with you completely. There is no middle ground. When’s the last time a people smoking a joint or two with some friends got violent, as opposed to the alcohol-related deaths and traumas that come from parties and underage drinking. It’s actually a double standard, and you would think it’d be the other way around. Alcohol leads to so many problems, and whereas Marijuana does have some negative effects (although very few, especially health wise) it is not as nearly as harmful as alcohol is. So, it’s still illegal because?</p>
<p>“So then, your parents end up getting notified about an alcohol violation of which you were actually innocent, which just isn’t right.”</p>
<p>And I think it will prove counter-productive, as when parents become aware that VT is getting trigger happy with these alcohol violation convictions the parents will probably be less concerned when VT contacts them about anything else as they have lost some credibility.</p>