::sniff:: That’s the coolest goddamned teacher in the world. God bless you, sir!!
Well, we’re not (yet) in a police state, where cops do a house-to-house every evening, looking for drugs, underage drinkers, atlases and so forth. So Americans still have an expectation of privacy in their own homes.
But that expectation should be fulfilled by efforts to keep one’s activities private. If the hostess and her guests had exercised discretion (for instance, by adhering to the neighborhood’s parking regulations), the cops would never have known any drinking had gone on that night.
When I was in high school, the mom of my friends “Jill” and “Susan” once gave us red wine. Shortly thereafter, we brushed our teeth and headed out to the corner store.
I hadn’t had much of the wine (never did develop a taste for reds), and Jill was nowhere near intoxicated, so no one looking at us or hearing us talk would have known that we’d been drinking. But Susan had a low tolerance for alcohol (I don’t think their mom knew this) and became very giggly and silly. She was still tee-heeing when we got back.
Their mom tore us all a new one, her for essentially wearing a sign that said “I’m Drunk”, and us for not shushing her and bringing her back to the house immediately. She’d taken a risk, she said, by letting us have wine, but she’d done it because she’d thought we could be discreet. To her ire, she had been wrong. AFAIK, she never gave her daughters alcohol again until they were of legal age. (Maybe out of high school, I dunno.)
So my point is, there’s nothing inherently wrong about drinking if you’re past 16 or so. But if you can’t control yourself, then you’ve proven that you’re too young. (Or that you’re an incipient alcoholic, but that’s all the more reason to stay dry until you’re of legal age. No sense ruining your adolesence too.)
Hmmm, I tend to side with Cosmopolitan on this one (and luckily, when I was in HS, so did my dad)… it’s highly doubtful it was any of the kids’ first time to drink or smoke pot, and highly likely her daughter would have gone out and done it elsewhere had the teacher not provided the venue. Letting her do it at home ensures that things don’t get out of control. I think it’s better to be a responsible parent (occupation irrespective) than a naive one.
That said, the teacher was dumb about it. First rule of underage partying: don’t let kids park in clusters around the house. People see lots of cars, they know it’s a party. Even if the party isn’t noisy, people are petty and bitter that they never went to any parties/had any friends/whatever, and call the cops. Second rule of underage partying: don’t let the kids drive. Collect keys at the door. You’re not drinking? Tough shit; you still ain’t driving. Why? 'Cause you’re lying. Third rule of underage partying: when all else fails, feign ignorance. What’s that, officer? These kids are having a party at my house?? Why, those little fuckers-- I was upstairs asleep!!! 
Unfortunately lots of parents do this when the kids are much younger than 18.
Just another argument for mandatory sterilization, IMHO.