There are many guilty parties in the prom party mess that apparently caused 41 Revere High School students to be arrested in Maine over the weekend for drunkenness, possession of alcohol and underage drinking.
What makes all of this worse is that the kids were at a party apparently planned and held at a Revere man’s home in Maine. There are also allegations that the Revere man bought alcohol for the party.
What, we wonder, could an adult in control of his faculties been thinking by allowing or acquiescing to allow such a party to take place?
At first glance and thought, it is easy to blame the Revere man.
But what about the mothers and fathers of the 41 kids who went to Maine following a prom for the big party? Where were they in all of this?
The bottom line in all of this is apparent. All prom parties ought to be dropped. If one life is saved in 50 years, it will have been worth it.
Prom parties should be replaced with events aimed at celebrating graduation and raising money for charitable organizations.
Drunkenness and drug use is so widespread among school-age children that it is impossible to have a party without many of the participants arriving drunk or stoned.
So why should Revere continue to act as an enabler?
Proms and their inevitable after-parties have become enormous liabilities appealing to young people’s temptations which they cannot resist.
Parents’ groups and school committees need to get together to change the world when it comes to proms and parties.
The time has come. The post prom party in Maine is proof of that.
