Blalron, I agree with you wholeheartedly, though I think you chose the wrong board to post your complaint on. With a few exceptions, any rant that gives away your age as a teenager here seems to automatically invalidate whatever it is you’re ranting about.
The way I read the OP, Blalron was complaining about the intrusive, accusatory breathalyzer policy in use by his school, and what s/he sees as excessive measures, i.e., calling the police.
I, as a teenager, am indescribably insulted that the response of some posters was along the lines of “Couldn’t get a date?” The OP’s status as a high school student should not force him/her to give up every bit of his/her human dignity. The fact that some employers require urine tests has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. The school is assuming, without provocation, that each and every student has done something wrong, and to prove his/her innocence the students must submit to a breathalyzer test. I understand the liability issues, but honestly the legal wranglings that the school is afraid of shouldn’t be Blalron’s situation to deal with in the end.
I would do the exact same thing in your place. No matter what your school and a good number of Dopers say, you do have a fundamental right to privacy and dignity. (I don’t mean a legal right, I mean a moral right) I applaud you for not giving into the “privacy means you have something to hide” mentality.
Cruktar, just so you know, these jabs were made at Blalron not because he’s a teenager, but because of how he’s been presenting himself in some of his other threads, where he’s been whining about how girls won’t even give him their phone numbers and asking for advice on buying a sex toy for himself. For better or for worse, this is part of the persona he’s been cultivating for himself here.
That said, if I were still a high-school student, I would probably be pretty damn upset about the kind of testing Blalron describes in his OP. It does seem over the top to me, and just because this kind of thing happens elsewhere is society doesn’t mean people should shrug their shoulders in resignation and accept every new manifestation of it. People should, IMO, be concerned about the myriad ways they are subject to surveillance and inspection today – drug-testing for employment, the monitoring of employees’ Internet activities, etc. (Not that I’m paranoid, mind you. :eek: )
It sure would matter if their Pocket-Popeil Breathalyzer registered a false positive and the cops were called out, causing a huge ruckus.
Whether Blalron’s case has merit is open to debate, but it seems to me like a reciepe for disaster if you’ve got the Phys.Ed teacher trying to operate an El Cheapo brand breathalyzer on a couple of hundred fidgeting kids. Even if that thing is “99.5% accurate,” that means you’ll get 1 false reading out of every 200 tries. If his high school is really serious about “cracking down,” they should get in a real cop and a real breathalyzer for the night, or at least for the opening part of the night. If an unqualified operator makes a mistake, and a kid is hauled off in handcuffs, it could be Lawsuit City.
I’m going to disagree with my wife (CrazyCatLady) and actually throw some support behind the OP.
I agree that the school faces potential liability, but that is a problem that should be addressed rather than corrected for. That is, I don’t think the school should have any liability for a drunk-driving accident after the prom if they had no reason to think that the driver was drunk while he was at the prom. If I get hammered and pull out of the parking lot of a bar in front of a policeman, drive perfectly normally, and then plow into someone and kill them, the cop isn’t responsible because he didn’t have any reason to think I was drunk, whereas he might be liable if I had been driving erratically.
The false-positive rate of the test strips is not an insignificant thing. You can’t really repeat it–if there was something in your breath that made it positive the first time, it will probably be positive the second time. You also have to consider that a lot of people won’t drink, or they’ll stay home if they do, and that very few people are going to be stupid enough to get tanked and take the damn test. Thus, most of your positives are probably going to be false, and the main thing you’re doing is turning a potentially great prom night into a night at the police station that you’ll never be able to explain away completely.
Testing for admission aside, I find the idea of calling the cops reprehensible. I think calling the cops on kids should be reserved for something that is VERY VERY serious, and I do not include having a few beers before the prom in that category. The end result is a disproportionate black mark on the kid’s record, and an increasing mistrust of one’s elders by the student. (Maybe that’s understandable in this case.)
Besides, won’t most of the drinking happen after the prom?
Do what I did, I didn’t go to the Prom, because I was in the U.S. Naval Reserves. We had a drill weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and went to Fire Fighting School at Rock Island, IL close to Iowa, Missouri, Illinois borders.
My boyfriend at the time was in the USNR also, so we did our Saturday training, brought a nice dress and got ready, after went on a Riverboat, had dinner, drank a little, danced, then went back to one of our hotel rooms and had sex.
Pretty much what was going to happen on Prom Night anyway, except for the work, but that was OK.
In the past three years at prom time around here my reporters or I have covered: five alcohol related fights at proms big enough to require a police report (two of which resulted in major law suits involving the schools), nine car accidents where the drivers were in formal attire and had been drinking (two involved fatalies - and at least two had the schools involved in law suits), a drunk student tripping and falling and injuring herself (and yes, a law suit came out ouf that from the loving parents of the drunk child).
So I have no trouble seeing why a school district would want to ask a person stepping into a situation that is known for drunkeness and rowdy behavior to blow some of his or her hot air into a plastic baggie. I am amazed that the tradition of a high-school sponsored prom has lasted as long as it has.
Wouldn’t work at our prom. They call your parents and tell them if you left. But you know what? Who cares? My parents sure dont.
I think its good that everyone gets a breathalyzer test, because drinking under the age of 21 is illegal, and thats all there is to it. And even though I’m not 21 and I do occasionally drink, I’m not stupid enough to do it at Prom.
I agree that testing everyone is a bit draconian but you’ll get no sympathy from me Blalron. If you are unable to have a fun evening without alcohol you’d better take a close look at youself because you may have a drinking problem.
Padeye, he wasn’t saying that he wanted to drink. He was saying that testing everyone was either immoral or a really stupid idea. Personally, I think that drugs should be legalized; that doesn’t mean I’m a drug user.
Incidentally, I mentioned this thread to my SO, and he had a good point: kids don’t get drunk at prom. They get drunk after prom.
This is very sound reasoning. I also propose that citizens must sign sworn affadavits stating that haven’t engaged in sodomy in states where sodomy is illegal. Because sodomy is illegal, and that’s all there is to it.
Blalron, that situation sucks. You have my sympahty. The breathalyzer test at the entrance is incredibly insulting. I didn’t drink in high school, and had my school instituted such a policy, I would have boycotted the prom on principle.
It really does seem that in most high schools the attitude is that students are all law-breaking thugs and should be treated accordingly. And if you’re consistently treated like someone who does Bad Things, well, it doesn’t give you much incentive not to do Bad Things, does it?
this reminds me a lot of that onion short “‘Cop such a fucking power-crazed fascist’ says drunk, stoned 14 year-old driver” (bad memory, along those lines)
i’m sure you’ve been sufficiently given what for in this thread already, but come on… you’re not 21 (neither am i), the school has every right (legally, ethically, whatever) to check if you’ve been drinking and take appropriate action.
Now when that one school was checking every girl to make sure nobody wore thongs, THAT was ridiculous, uncalled for, and hopefully extremely illegal. This isn’t the case here, however.
I’m not saying I’m glad your school did this, though I might when i have kids. It sucks that they made it more difficult for you to have fun. if you’re crafty enough you can work around it, but if you ask me the prom is a complete waste of time anyway… much more fun to just drink w/ all your friends
Is that the best reason you can come up with for boycotting the prom? Geez, kids these days…
At least when I boycotted the prom, it was because the theme for the evening was Titanic. I’m not paying $25 to listen to Celine Dion wail at me for half the night. Especially since the school wasn’t providing sulfuric acid cocktails to lessen the pain.
I boycotted the prom because I couldn’t comprehend spending upwards of $500 to go to a dinner and dance with people I didn’t particularly like in a dress I didn’t want to wear (the school told me I would not be allowed to attend in a tuxedo) and generally have the whole thing be a waste of my time.
Instead I took the $500 and went to NYC with some friends for a four day weekend.
Much wiser use of my money, and no damn dress required.
*please, don’t assume for a second that I think AIDS is a “gay-disease.” That’s even more silly than demanding everyone swear they haven’t been sodomizing, demanding students be tested with a breathalyser before attending their prom or assuming that drinking=death. [/disclaimer]
I am rabidly against drug testing for adults, but most kids in high school are not adults. If you are under 18 your parents, teachers, and other adults bear some responsibility for your actions and if they choose to drug test you, you have to go along. As an adult that changes as you become responsible for yourself. Same applies to drinking.
Refusal of admittance would be an appropriate action, but Blalron states that the cops would be called. This is NOT the appropriate action and I believe it violates the spirit of the 4th ammendment, if not the actual letter. The ammendment states:
Where the school is going wrong is the policy to call the police. Showing up at the dance should not be probable cause for a criminal investigation. What’s happening here is that the school will compulsorily administer searches upon one’s body (the breathylizer tests) and then call the cops if the student fails said search. The cops will then use the search itself as probable cause for … you guessed it - a search. The student is in the constitutionally precarious position of having a breathylizer test being used as the probable cause for a breathylizer test.
Since the prom itself is not a compulsory event, the school has a legal loophole as the student can avoid the first search upon his or her person by avoiding the dance entirely. As I said before, the school is not breaking the letter of the 4th ammendment, but they sure are running roughshod over the intent.
Blalron, you might find this story of an alternative prom in Dallas of interest. The students were in an identical position to you, and did something about it.