TEENAGERS' PARTY RIGHTS
BY LONESTAR
Imagine you are throwing a party with the permission of your parents. In fact, your father is present, yet has holed up in his bedroom, watching 60 Minutes reruns. He has allowed you to serve alcohol to your friends (who also have parental permission). All of a sudden, the music stops and everyone hears the familiar sound of police officers approaching. A few of your drunk friends crawl awkwardly under couches, leaving a majority of their bodies exposed. A few others , in a moment of panic, run outside and hide under a deck. Two cops knock on the door, and you open it. They ask you who the host of the party is and if there is an adult present. You tell him that you are the host and that yes, there is an adult present. His partner looks behind you and sees a beer can on the table. He tells you that they have probable cause and proceed to enter. What do you do?
A.) Find the nearest sharp object and take your life.
B.) Tell him you're sorry, but you already have a copy of The Watchtower.
C.) Stand aside and let him come in.
D.) Deny him entrance to your home and tell him that his entering is illegal.
The answer is D, but chances are, none of you would have guessed it. Here is the big surprise: it is not illegal for minors to drink.
In an interview with second in command of the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, Captain Roger Chatterton, he explained this concept that most parents don't want you to know.
Consumption of alcohol by minors is prohibited in public places. It is not illegal, however, on private property. It is not unlawful for minors to throw a huge party, as long as they have the supervision of one or more adults, permission from guardians, and as long as there is no alcohol sold , because that would turn private property into public property. (This doesn't mean you can't take donations.)
By the way, all of the above information can be found in section 25662 of the California Penal Code.
I encourage parents to allow their kids to throw alcohol-related parties. Would they rather have their kids drinking and having a good time at home with friends, or in a car somewhere thirty miles away?
It's strange that few high-school students I talked to were aware of this law. Perhaps this is because many adults don't want them to know the extent of our freedom. It's too bad, because protection of young adults is achieved by education, not ignorance.
By LONESTAR
I would like to shake hands with the mastermind who first engineered the phrase "Don't get smart with me!"
The phrase is obviously a favorite of Dan Quayle's. In fact, the first person ever to use this remarkable quotation was probably an ancestor of ol' Dan the man himself.
With an understanding of this beautiful statement, we can all appreciate it for it's full meaning. "Don't get smart with me!" Okay, I know we've been educated by public schools and all, but shouldn't we at least HUMOR the tax payers?
The same people who are saying "don't get smart" with me are also telling us not to take drugs. Will you please make up your mind? One of my favorite reprimands is when a teacher or parent yells, "Don't you dare talk back to me!" Thirty seconds later, the same person asks, "Well, what's the matter, haven't you got anything to say for yourself?" They wonder why they get no respect.
Next time I walk up to a teacher and ask if I can go to the bathroom and the wiseguy replies, "I don't know CAN you?" I just might defecate right there on the floor. "Yes, I can."
Oh, and what about when you explain that the reason you did something was because everybody else was doing it. Any normal teenager knows that there are times when everybody else doing something makes it okay. Like throwing tomatoes at cars, for example. You probably wouldn't do it alone, but with six of your most immature friends, it suddenly seems like a great idea.
So let's say you got caught throwing tomatoes, and you try to escape a good grounding by saying, well, mom, everybody else was doing it." You mother then replies, "If everybody jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?"
Why would everybody jump off a bridge? Have you ever been in a situation where all your friends were plummeting off the Golden Gate and the last guy grabs you and says, what's the matter? Don't you want to be cool? Everybody's doing it." If you have, you shouldn't pick such stupid friends.
Of course, you can't point this out to your teacher or parent, because then you would be "getting smart with them," which is a perfect way to get yourself in trouble. So in order to make them think they've done a good job as a teacher or parent (and to save your own ass), when they pop you the ol' bridge question, you simply stare at your knuckles, and in your best inbred nitwit voice, reply, "umm... I dunno."
Once again, you have succeeded. You did not become smart with them, which is exactly what they want."
By Lonestar
"Where am I? Why am I here?" These are some typical questions coming from typical high school students... sober ones. High school, ladies and gentleman, is a period in time that has nothing in common with our past or our future. It is the one time when we are exactly nothing. Junior high and college are both unbalanced shades of nothing, but high school is right in the middle.
In junior high, for the most part, we were kids. Granted, our society was encouraging us to act like mature adults, but we still had the innocence of children, and we were still extremely dependent on our parents.
In college, you're almost a real person in the real world, you're experiencing new bounds of freedom, and you make about 95 percent of your decisions for yourself. You're a young adult. Your parents still play a major role in your life, but you no longer need them. You may vote, go to war, drink, smoke, or go to an "R" rated movie without answering to anybody.
High school is a different story. WHAT ARE WE? We are exactly nothing! We don't fit in anywhere and we scare the hell out of adults. The only people we don't scare are people in college. We're too young to vote, yet we're too old to trick or treat. We're "too young to have sex" yet holding hands has become quite monotonous. We're too young to get drunk, but distorting reality by spinning on a merry-go-round no longer is a distortion. If we're not adults, then how come it hurts so bad when the person you know you love breaks you? Yet if we're not children, then how come we're "incapable of too much real responsibility?"
The problem is, you don't go from child to adult overnight. Right now we could be dealing with what could very well be the most difficult transition of our lives. Thank God for understanding people: people who remember this transition, who aren't so weak that they choose to block these bitter, sweet, confusing recollections.