MidshipmanParent
Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2018
- Messages
- 16
Hello, I was hoping someone could give me some advice regarding an alcohol-related incident my DS was just involved in. He is a midshipman with a 4-year NROTC scholarship. He just finished his 3rd year -- in the fall he will be a 1st class Midshipman, he is supposed to Commission in one year. He has been a stellar midshipman up until this incident -- no issues at all: he was given a national engineering award at the end-of-year NROTC ceremony in his unit; for next fall he was given a major leadership role in the unit; he gets straight A's; is on the Dean's list at his university; he maxes out on all the PT tests; he was just accepted into the Mortar Board Honor Society at his university; he got an awesome engineering internship for this summer before and after his summer cruise; he volunteers at the local high school as an assistant wrestling coach; and he does engineering research in one of the research labs at his university on top of all his studies. Here is what happened: when my DS finished up everything for the school year yesterday, he and some of his friends very stupidly decided to throw a party at the house where my DS rents a room. This is the first party my DS has ever thrown -- he never does this sort of thing, never goes to parties and doesn't drink (up until yesterday he had always been very responsible and abiding regarding the NROTC prohibitions on alcohol), but on this occasion, he very stupidly felt that since it was a long exhausting year and he and all his friends ended it so well academically, they wanted to celebrate. My DS stupidly ended up drinking at the party and there was alcohol being served in the house. The police ended up coming to the house because it was late at night and they were playing loud music, and, since it was my DS's house, and he honestly said it was his party, my DS was given misdemeanor charges for possession of alcohol and underage drinking (he is 20) and serving alcohol. (He hasn't received the charges yet, the police are supposed to mail it to him.) He was not arrested, and he immediately went to his unit to report the incident. He knows he is in big trouble, and he totally regrets what he did (he feels so horrible, he is in really bad shape mentally right now). He says he will have to go before a performance review board (PRB) at his unit. The officers at his unit said they will figure out what will happen once my DS receives the misdemeanor charge paperwork in the mail. I am hoping and praying he will not be disenrolled. Regarding the misdemeanor charges my DS will get a court date and will hopefully be able to get the charges reduced to something less than a misdemeanor by the judge given his good record and since this is his first offense, but I figure that is no guarantee. He has already retained the services of a local attorney who is experienced in this sort of thing. (Luckily, my DS volunteers for the local high school wrestling team as an assistant coach, and the coach knew of a good attorney for him.) My DS is also proactively going to take an alcohol awareness counseling class that he can show the judge (and maybe show at the PRB hearing). Is there anyone out there with any experience with this sort of thing that could give some advice? Is it likely he will be disenrolled? Is there anything else my DS should do besides what I describe above? How will this affect his career? Any advice is very much appreciated.