FACE TO FACE: Are 'dry grads' a good idea for getting kids to celebrate safely?
I've said it before: I don't like dry grads.
Despite the best intentions of their dedicated parent organizers, dry grads don't protect grads from alcohol-related tragedies on grad weekend.
A bit of history might help here: Grad weekend used to involve a school-sanctioned dinner/dance followed by student parties and perhaps a grad breakfast at someone's house the next day.
Grad dinners were held in schools in late June and, so, students all over B.C. held post grad parties on the same June night. As a result, heartbreaking grad-night tragedies were often splashed all over newspaper front pages the next day.
Terrified parents began to organize dry grads, to corral their kids on grad night and save them from alcohol-related tragedies.
For years, grads refused to attend dry grads instead of their own post-grad parties but parents persisted and grads soon realized they could attend dry grad without sacrificing their own celebrations.
The kids simply postponed their parties and the grad "camping" trip was born, changing grad from an overnight experience to a four- or five-day blowout.
So, ironically, dry grads didn't keep grads from alcohol-related grad celebrations; rather, they forced grads to reschedule longer, better-attended drinking opportunities in remote areas.
And beyond this futility, what message does dry grad send teenagers?
As students complete their schooling, at this most teachable moment, the final message we give grads is that we need to protect them from being irresponsible with alcohol on grad night.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against after-grads, just those with "dry" in their title and as their purpose.
Mercifully, these events are evolving. My colleague Andy poignantly describes his positive experience, an after-grad party that supplied grads an exciting venue to spend more time with classmates rather than at some cliquey house party.
That's an admirable goal. We only need to drop "dry" from the name and the aim. Just call it "after-grad" and advertise it as a grad celebration gift from parents to grads. Then ask students to set the rules for their celebration.
You can bet that their rules would be a lot tougher than ours.
And guess what their first rule would be?
Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.
