Monday, September 20, 2010

Kid's Night Out in Maine

I'm already heading home.

"Surveys: Maine parents underestimate teen drinking

Most parents in Maine underestimate how often their high school-aged children drink alcohol, according to results of newly released surveys. In the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey last winter, 65 percent of Maine high school teens said they've had at least one drink in their life, and more than 20 percent said they had engaged in binge drinking in the past month by consuming five or more drinks in a row, said Director Guy Cousins. But in the phone survey, only 26 percent of parents said they believed their high school-aged children had ever had more than a few sips of alcohol.

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"Maine's Colby College bans hard liquor

Colby College is following two other elite liberal arts colleges in Maine by banning hard alcohol from campus this fall.

My first question is what is alcohol doing on a campus of mostly underage kids at all?


Dean of Students Jim Terhune says the goal is to eliminate "dangerous drinking." He says hard liquor, not beer or wine, is the culprit when students are hospitalized for excessive drinking. Bates and Bowdoin colleges have similar policies banning hard liquor. The Morning Sentinel newspaper says Colby's policy comes more than two years after nearly 20 students were hospitalized following a tradition in which seniors marked the end of classes by drinking on the steps of Colby's library.

What bothers me is kids will defend their right to drink before protesting against wars they are lied into.


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