QUESTIONS
& ANSWERS
I
had planned a party for my daughter's sixteenth birthday party to be held in
our home. As a Safe Homes parent I took
all of the suggested precautions to keep the party alcohol free. I established ground rules with my daughter
making it clear that the responsibility for hosting this party belonged to both
myself and to her. We created a guest
list. I told my daughter that alcohol
and other drug use was strictly prohibited in our home. I informed myself and my daughter about the laws
and consequences of serving alcohol and other drugs. I supervised the party, met my daughter's
friends, did not allow guests to come and go, and made myself aware of the
signs of drug and alcohol abuse. Even after taking all of these precautions I
ran into the following problems.
The
party had been under way for about two hours when the doorbell rang. I went to answer the door and it was one of
my daughter's friends, an invited guest.
It was obvious that he had been drinking...
What do you do when you host an alcohol free party and someone shows up who has been drinking?
Make it clear that they cannot attend the
party.
Do
not allow them to leave until they have a sober, responsible person to drive
them.
Make it clear that if they do choose to get in
their car and drive away that you will be forced to contact the police.
Contact the police if the young person is at
all belligerent or refuses to cooperate with you.
Consider contacting the young person's
parents. After all, if it was your son
or daughter wouldn't you want to know?
During one of my trips downstairs to check on things
I decided to start cleaning up a bit. As
I went to throw some of the cups out in the garbage I noticed that some of them
contained beer. I looked in the garbage
and discovered several empty beer cans...
What do you do
when you host an
alcohol free party and you
discover
that alcohol has been consumed by minors in your home?
End the party immediately.
Call
the parent of each young person and tell them the party is ending, why it is
ending, and that the children were asked to go home.
Call the parent(s) of the drinking violator(s)
and ask them to come pick up their son or daughter.
If the parents are not home, contact a
relative or family friend to take responsibility for the young person and the
pick-up. Talk to the parents at a later
date.
A few weeks following my daughter's sixteenth
birthday party she was invited to attend a party at a friend's house. I was hesitant, especially considering the
fact that even though I had done my best to keep alcohol from my daughter's
party, it had still found its way in. I
knew the parents of the home well and checked my Safe Homes registry,
discovering that they too were Safe Homes parents. I contacted the parents and discussed the
party with them. They assured me that
there would be no alcohol present at the party and that the party would be well
supervised. I allowed my daughter to
attend. When she returned home that
night she mentioned to me that there had been alcohol present at the
party. When I asked her where the
parents were she said that they had gone out.
Because something similar had occurred in my home just a few
weeks before I was not sure how to handle this situation...
What do you do if you hear
that alcohol was present at a party held in the home of a Cheshire Safe Homes
family?
Contact
the parents and let them know of the information you learned.
Try
to determine whether or not the information is accurate.
Do not allow your son or daughter to go to
that home until you are sure
that it is safe.
If you have any questions
you would like answered, or if you have suggestions or examples on how to deal
with
difficult situations like those mentioned above, contact Cheshire Youth Services at 271-6690.