This is incredibly stupid and irresponsible on every level. Teacher throws a drinking party for her 18 year old daughter. How did she ever figure that 40 kids could keep this a secret? Police are asking the Ozaukee County district attorney to charge the woman with resisting/obstructing an officer, disorderly conduct, furnishing alcoholic beverages to minors, contributing to the neglect of a child, providing a premise where alcohol was served to minors, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Must have been a helluva party!! The cops find kids leaving the party driving under the influence. - you dont let kids leave a party if theyve been drinking. They find pot in the house after they come back for the third time. - after the second time the cops showed up that shit would have been flushed into Lake Michigan. Kids are too stupid to act cool when the cops show up. - they run from the garage into the house when the police arrive, pushing an officer in the process. Teacher sets bad example by not co-operating with the police. - kids end up with resisting arrest citations by emulationg teacher. She was a chemistry teacher. - Heh. The shool district in which she teaches does not have a policy prohibiting teachers from serving alcohol to minors. - ?? Im guessing it probably doesnt have a policy for murder either.
!4 of the students had been drinking according to police breathylizer tests.
"This is not your typical drinking party," Burch said. “It’s usually not the parents who won’t let you in. Usually, the parents are gone and the kids are having the party.” - Thanks for clarifying that.
So, it is actually illegal to drink in a private home with the owners consent at age 18? You can do that from the age of 5 in the UK. Is this true in many states?
I used to go out drinking all the time with teachers from my school. With some teachers I even went on visits to their house for class parties. I guess things are just a little bit different here.)
She got rightly nailed on the drugs thing though, and any kid who drove whilst drunk deserved a damn good slap by the law.
Jesus, what a fuss about nothing…aren’t 18 year olds adults? :rolleyes: …At 18, I was being plied with liquor by university lecturers. Anybody who’s 18th birthday didn’t involve alcohol would be viewed as simply odd.
The legal drinking age in the U.S is 21. Sure, most kids drink long before that, but an adult throwing a party for underage kids is not going to be taken lightly. It’s not odd that 18 year olds had a party like this, it’s odd because their teacher hosted it.
A teacher did this in my HS and it was pretty much kept secret.
I was a Junior and we got a new drama teacher. And I mean new. It was her first teaching job out of college.
So the last big production of the year she did a musical review. Lots of numbers from various b’way shows sung very poorly. (for various, and tedious reasons I was not in the show but this is another rant)
Anyway she had the cast part at the school. They watched The Exorcist and drank beer and some of the kids got pretty drunk and sick.
Oh, did I mention that I went to a CATHOLIC HS and the NUNS lived upstairs.
She didn’t get caught but she did get burned as she seemed to have trouble the next year with the Jr.s who were at the party didn’t seem to respect her authority as a teacher much.
This is an outrage!!! 18 year olds drinking!!! Throw her in a cell and let her rot there!!! Frankly I’m amazed that the police were so restrained, we simply cannot have this kind of behaviour going on.
You’ll be telling me next that she let them view a titty on national television, then it really would be the breakdown of all civilised American society.
Her daughter turned 18. Some of the students at the party were probably 16, 17, etc. The drinking age is 21 here.
The kicker is, the reason the cops were called is because of all the cars parked on the street. These high-school kids were going to DRIVE home after the party was over. The teach was being irresponsible to the umpteenth degree. Zebra brought up a good point too. Respect. As a teacher you have to hold yourself accountable. You should expect your students to respect and look up to you.
Youre being an ass. The law here is 21. If the law were 18, thatd be a different story. Plus I mentioned that the students were not all 18 yet. At least the story doesnt address that, so Im assuming it`s the case.
At what age would the students have to be for you to be outraged? 12, 14?
I completely disagree with the drinking age being 21, especially at a private party. That said the teacher was an idiot breaking the law (even if it is a stupid law) doubly so for having pot in the house. The kids who drove home drunk from her party should face charges. I would hope the teacher gets disciplinary action from his/her school.
Uncommon Sence the laws are completely different in UK, there would be nothing wrong with the party (and if the new pot laws have come through, nothing arrestable about possessing of pot). But the kids who drove whilst drunk they would be in a lot of trouble with the law.
Well I find it bizarre that US law can specify what an 18 year old can do in private on private property with a legal beverage, that’s all. This is quite different from any laws about who can purchase alcohol and where.
The story doesn’t mention it, so you’re safe to assume it??? Can we assume they were armed too?
Yes. But as these there are no mention of any this age what exactly am I supposed to be outraged about?
Obviously the drug charges are a different issue. But when it comes to drink driving; isn’t the usual course of action to wait until someone actually breaks the law rather than arresting them because you think they might?
The teacher’s actions weren’t exactly wise, but it’s all very strange.
Sheez. If they’re stupid enough to break the law many times over, and they’re stupid enough to get caught (three times the police dropped by for a visit,) they’re stupid enough to get some sort of reprimand.
I expect that Dopers are able to assume the context of the situation in their heads without a lengthy explanation.
If a UK Doper were to rant about 18 year old students drinking I would NOT chime in with a response along the lines of “Throw the students is prison, 18 is way too young to be drinking”. I would respect the context of the situation.
FG - "The story doesn’t mention it, so you’re safe to assume it??? Can we assume they were armed too? "
Really, what are the odds that all 40 students were at least 18. I think that would have been a newsworthy item.
FG - "Yes. But as these there are no mention of any this age what exactly am I supposed to be outraged about?
I sort of expected the outrage to be that a TEACHER, no less, was willing to allow these many kids in her house to get drunk and then drive home. Does this not strike you as way over the top?
There were laws broken. Read the OP or the story to see which. Drinking and driving, of which you seemed to be stuck on, is only one of many. And thankfully there weren`t any accidents on the way home for these kids.
The police prevented this possibility.
I’m gonna take a guess & say that the teacher’s line of thinking ran something like this: “Well, they’re gonna do it anyway; better if they do it at my place with me present so they’re safe”.
I might tend to agree with her, actually. IF she hadn’t been aware that the little buggers had driven to the party & if it weren’t snugly inside the realm of possibility that at least some of them would be driving home whilst inebriated &/or high.
And if she hadn’t known that gee, drinking alcohol whilst under the age of 21 & possession of weed at any age are both illegal.
Now, I’m not gonna start yelling about how arresting these kids for drinking booze is stupid because the law is stupid. I can agree with the sentiment “The drinking age law is stupid” whilst also commenting that if these kids didn’t wanna get arrested (as a form of protest, for example), then they shouldn’t have broken the law. Tough noogies.
And FTR, if I ever get a stupid idea like this in my head when I become a teacher, you have my express permission to smack me about the head with a clue-by-four.
This just doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me. We did way worse than that when I was in high school; I guess people just didn’t complain about it. Hell, I remember going to a cast party for the school musical at one of the teacher’s houses, with alcohol being served. It wasn’t just someone who happened to be a teacher throwing a party for his daughter; it was a teacher throwing a party for his class. And people were getting stoned left and right. Right or wrong, that stuff happens all the time. Having said that, I do think it was pretty stupid to refuse cooperation with the cops; although it’s hard to say because the article offers no details as to exactly what the woman did to obstruct the search. A couple things bug me:
I wasn’t aware it was a crime to park a car on the street.
Sounds a little draconian to me. But maybe this was a reaction to all the kids who were resisting the cops. It doesn’t give the timing of events, so I can’t say.
In summary - yeah, kinda dumb, but hardly the crime of the century.
UK Dopers having a hard time gettng there heads around US attitudes about teenage drinking had better not look here.
A “prank”? Flavouring agent, is what that’s usually called. What are we talking about, here? Rum brownie recipes generally call for a 1/4 cup of rum per dozen brownies, and they’re baked, so alcohol evaporates and tasty rum flavour remains. Five kids suspended? :rolleyes:
When something like that can be reported without a trace of irony, don’t be surprised when folks get really worked up about a teacher hosting a rowdy booze-up.
Well, the only problem I see with this scenario is the driving. Some kids want to drink, an adult facilitates it… big deal. Contrary to the implications in the OP, drinking alcohol is nothing like murder.
The story doesn’t mention it, so you’re safe to assume it??? Can we assume they were armed too?