Alcohol- Should I be concerned??

MareBear72

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As a 2023 parent I am extremely concerned about recent events concerning alcohol on campus. I've heard from numerous sources about an incident involving upperclassmen taking plebes off campus as recently as this past weekend. From my understanding, not only was drinking occurring on campus, but there were numerous other egregious offenses. Is this a common occurrence among the upperclassmen? Should I be concerned about my plebe?
 
Tell your plebe not to drink if under age and not to leave campus unless with a reliable friend and when they have official liberty. Follow those rules and there is no need to worry. When you get five messages on this forum, send me a pm and I can answer in more detail.
 
I think that it's okay to be concerned about alcohol, vaping, and other drug use, as service academies may not be the same as other colleges, but they have the same issues.
When it comes down to it, however your DS or DD was raised before they arrived there, will inform them as to what is right and what is wrong. They are grown up now. Trust but verify is always in the modus operandi of a good Parent. ;)
 
As a 2023 parent I am extremely concerned about recent events concerning alcohol on campus. I've heard from numerous sources about an incident involving upperclassmen taking plebes off campus as recently as this past weekend. From my understanding, not only was drinking occurring on campus, but there were numerous other egregious offenses. Is this a common occurrence among the upperclassmen? Should I be concerned about my plebe?

I'm a '19 grad. We had the exact same incident last year with plebes being given drinks by upperclassmen. If this is a real incident I bet the upperclassmen will get the boot, because the supe said last year there would be zero tolerance for that specific issue. Drinking on campus is nothing new, and something most people have done. There will be drinking, it's a college. The chances of something bad happening are pretty low and people usually take care of eachother at KP. It's a small school.
 
My take as a mom on this has pretty much been mentioned:

-you already raised your kid. Hopefully they make good, solid choices based upon good, solid upbringing.

-SA’s are LIKE college in this instance. Opportunities will present themselves. It’s up to the kid to make the best choice for them (sometimes that is going along to a certain extent for accepted social norms).

-we all have to make tough choices sometimes. Hopefully your (my) kid is smart and does the proper thing.

-if something egregious is going on, I suspect the hammer will come down harder on the 1st class men/women than the plebe.

-you are hearing rumors. Even if from several people. And if from your child, it’s filtered through their life lens. There is always two sides to a story. Or more.

-our kids are not infallible. They will mess up. Hopefully they learn and grow with the least amount of damage. Lessons can be learned from everything.

Our kiddos are “protected” and in a ‘safer’ environment overall at a SA than at regular college IMO. Less opportunities for nefarious activities. More oversight by peers/upperclass/staff. Less time to get in trouble at a SA than a regular college where there is far less structure and more opportunities for these kinds of activities.
 
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if something egregious is going on, I suspect the hammer will come down harder on the 1st class men/women than the plebe.

The way these things go the plebes are probably drinking with 3rd or less likely 2nd classmen. The 1/C have very little business even talking to plebes. The 3/C can also relate to them better because they were just there. As a 1/C I didn't remember much other than it sucked. I suspect Jack will be very upset about this, the regiment was "talked to" about this multiple times and the guy that did it last year was an inch from getting tossed. If an upperclassman actually took a plebe out to drink his days there are probably numbered.
 
Tell your plebe not to drink if under age and not to leave campus unless with a reliable friend and when they have official liberty. Follow those rules and there is no need to worry. When you get five messages on this forum, send me a pm and I can answer in more detail.
KPMom2013 is right. As long as you follow all the rules, you will be fine. You will always be tested. Good luck to your plebe!
 
The irony here is wonderful and not lost.

OP is worried about their kid drinking at college, and the avatar is a screen shot from the music video "Boats n Hoes." Which mentions Sangria and Lemonheads in the first 20 seconds.

I wonder if they took them to the Catalina Wine Mixer?
 
There's underage drinking on and off every college campus in America, including service academies. If your plebe is drinking now, it probaby wasn't an activity picked up in the last three months. As parents, we worry about everything. Hopefully, your plebe learns moderation. While in uniform in NYC, they are going to get a lot of free drinks. Next year, they will be on the other side of the globe where there is no such thing as "underage" drinking and no upperclassmen looking out for them. Was I concerned...sure. But, they are adults and will make their own decisions...and have to live with the consequences. Good luck
 
EVERY parent should have a discussion with their cadet/mid or regular college student about underage drinking. As stated above, the presence of alcohol abuse exists at virtually every institution including some of the most prestigious schools.

Coaching your child to manage risk vs reward decisions while under peer pressure is not easy, but is part of parenting-101.
 
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I cant talk about the academies but drinking is a fact of college life. They drink under 21 and they drink over 21. They have college bars next to the colleges so that the kids dont have to drive. It also continues in the military. Air Force pilots like to drink . The only thing you can do is to teach them right and make sure they dont drink and drive andy never get into a car when someone else has been drinking. My son in his infinite wisdom while in college moved near the bars so that he could walk home easily. While at UPT, the Lyft driver knew the student pilots by name and one of the bars had its own van to take its patron home. Neither I nor my wife drink and we dont really like that he is into this thing. However, I have to give him credit that he is smart enough to never put himself into a position where he could endanger himself and more importantly endanger someone else. All i know is that in the Air Force, they like to drink.
 
In my day at KP, there was no underage drinking. Of course the drinking age, both on federal property and in the state of New York was 18.
 
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