By Avery Holyoak

Talon Staff Reporter

The Talon posted an Underage Drinking Poll on September 23, 2014 in order to obtain information on student drinking habits. The results showed that 59.49% of students who took the poll had drank at a social gathering in the last 3 months, and 10.13% had drank in a similar situation, but not in the last 3 months.

A comment on the poll from English teacher Kathy Yasui said, “I am shocked to see how many people have been drinking! Don’t people realize how dumb it is and dangerous?”

Every so often, on a monday morning, you can piece together through the hushed whispers that there was a party, and things didn’t go exactly as planned. An unexpected and unwanted visitor arrived. The police.

A Minor in Possession, or MIP, can be given to a minor even if they aren’t drinking, or smoking. If you are around it, are doing it, or have illicit items, you are at risk.

Nate Parson, Vice Principal, when asked about the effects of underage drinking, said this, “We want to warn them [that] they don’t realize the effects until later, because [their] brain is still developing up until, even past the age of 21. [They] don’t realize the brain cells [they]’re missing because they are already gone, and they’re already damaged. [They] could be missing out on so much brain capacity and intelligence, but [they] don’t know what it was like to have it. It was taken from [them] at a young age.”

The purpose of an MIP, according to criminal.findlaw.com, is to educate kids about drinking and drugs. It can be a wake up call for the kids who might be having a problem with such things. But, most of the time, it’s not. Of the five students with MIP’s anonymously interviewed, none said they planned on changing at all unless said change was being a little more cautious.

The general consensus among students is that the people who do it all the time, who may end up actually having a substance abuse problem, almost always get away with it. None of the kids that are “smart,” get caught.