Editorial: Don't let teens to celebrate diploma with alcohol

Turn the pages of the Daily Herald these days and you'll likely find smiling students decked out in colorful caps and gowns.

High school graduation season is in full swing, and it will be closely followed in the weeks to come with celebration parties.

Graduating from high school is life's launchpad to a host of exciting and mature choices like going to college or trade school, getting a job, joining the military or traveling.

The new graduates will size up those opportunities, gaze at their future and consider themselves adults. And, in many respects, they are just that.

However, drinking alcohol is one adult behavior that's too risky for teens, and parents must keep that in mind this summer.

The fact is the drinking age in Illinois is 21, and there's no exemptions that allow teens to toast a diploma or their return home from college.

Parents: Resist the temptation to allow your teen to join the celebration with an adult beverage.

And, don't allow your house or backyard to host a gathering for other teens where their use of alcohol is permitted.

What's unsettling is how often that advice is ignored.

A 2012 survey conducted by The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility revealed more than 50 percent of respondents ages 13 to 20 reported they are drinking alcoholic beverages, David Bohl, the executive director of Kiva Recovery in Vernon Hills, wrote in a Daily Herald guest column last week.

“What's even more disturbing is that 52 percent of those same 13- to 20-year-olds reported they get the alcohol they drink from their parents or their friends' parents.”

Taking the keys away from young guests and allowing them to sleep it off in your basement is not a responsible option.

We've stressed these points over the years, but they bear repeating. We again point to the story of Jeffrey and Sara Hutsell of Deerfield as evidence of why.

The Hutsells were convicted in 2007 of allowing teenagers to drink in their house during a Homecoming party for Deerfield High School students. Two teens left the house, drove drunk and died when they crashed into a tree.

Jeffrey Hutsell was sentenced to two weeks in jail and probation; his wife also received probation.

Allowing teens to drink is a high-risk, no-reward gambit that exposes parents to a plethora of legal trouble or worse — living with a decision that cost a kid his life.

The answer is simple: don't allow teens to drink alcohol.