I’m not sure how many of you have heard about the story of Elisa Kelly and her ex-husband George Robinson, so if you haven’t let me lay out some facts for you:
- Their teenage son wanted to have a birthday party with all of his friends with alcohol.
- They decided to let their son have the party at the mother’s house.
- They made their son promise that everyone who came to the party had to stay the night.
- The mother bought $340 worth of beer and wine for the party.
- As people arrived at the party she collected car keys so that nobody could leave.
- Nobody at the party actually consumed enough alcohol to be over the legal limit.
For all of that, a judge in Virginia has sentenced this woman to two years in prison, because the judge in the case, a certain Mr. Camblos (who just happens to be campaigning for re-election on a “stop teenage drinking” platform), has “seen too many photographs of teenagers being killed in car wrecks because of drinking and driving.”
Now maybe I’m missing something here, but didn’t these parents take every responsible step to make sure that nobody would be drinking and driving at this party? And for acting responsibly (and by “responsibly” I also mean deciding to let their son have his party with booze under their supervision instead of letting him sneak off to do it out in a field somewhere so there would be drunk driving), these people get two years in prison each?
I’ve heard of sex predators getting lighter sentences.
If you ask me, the real obstacle to solving the underage drinking problem isn’t parents like the ones described above but rather grandstanding, self-important nanny-staters like Judge Camblos who exacerbate this problem with their neo-prohibitionist attitudes. The solution to underage drinking isn’t more laws against it with stiffer penalties but rather encouragement for parents like these who are now going to prison. Parents who don’t bury their heads in the sand and pretend like their little darlings do no wrong. Parents willing to step up and teach their kids how to live their lives responsibly by actually giving them responsibility.