SOME PARTY

Hopkinton's soccer bash gone bad demands a strong response.

Because of their presence as role models, teachers, of all people, should
know better than to provide alcohol to high school students. Because of a
tragedy in its recent past, Hopkinton, of all communities, should be
attuned to issues surrounding drinking and the young.

That's what makes the emerging story of a recent soccer celebration gone
bad so deeply disturbing. That's also why it demands a response that is
both strong and thoughtful.

Robert and Carole Carr, who are both teachers, and another adult, Patrice
Miller, have been criminally charged for allegedly providing a keg of beer
for a student party at the Carr home. The idea was to celebrate the
completion of the fall sports season, which culminated in a state
championship for the girls' soccer team.

Woo-hoo. Some celebration.

Some of the 40 students who attended came home sick from drinking. Angry
parents called the police. An investigation followed. Now, in addition to
the criminal charges, 28 student-athletes who acknowledged drinking at the
party may face sanctions for violating a contract they signed as a
condition of participating in school sports.

The two charges the adults face are misdemeanors - theoretically punishable
by up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine. The publicity surrounding the
arrests alone may seem a high price to pay for hosting a party, but in
these circumstances, the charges are appropriate. After all, store clerks
caught selling alcohol to minors face the same sanctions; if anything,
parents should be held to a higher standard of accountability.

The Carrs have also been placed on paid leave in Hillsboro- Deering, where
they teach. Presumably the district is considering further action.
Certainly this review is warranted; it is reasonable to expect responsible
behavior of teachers outside the classroom as well as in it.

We feel more sympathy for the students at the party, who appear to have
been served a mixed message by their adult hosts. Nevertheless, the
students who drank should face sanctions, too.

There is a possibility that they will not. When the last game was played,
some adults have argued, the no-drinking contract signed by athletes
lapsed. This may be a technically correct reading of the fine print, but
Hopkinton school officials should focus on the big picture instead.

The message that the kids should take out of this experience is that when
you get in trouble, you don't wiggle around it, you face it; when you make
a bad decision, consequences will follow.

Tomorrow an athletic review board will meet with the students and others to
hear evidence and consider a response. The students could be suspended for
all or a portion of the upcoming sports season. If that's what the review
board decides, the community should support it.

But the board might also consider a more creative response. How meaningful
it might be to require the students involved to meet with people touched by
the 1996 accident that took the life of Hopkinton's Brooke Blanchard, who
was a soccer star herself. Blanchard's mother has alleged that alcohol was
a factor in that accident, though that has not been proven in open court.

Following that meeting, the students could consider and carry out their own
punishment, provided the review board approved it.

Hopkinton's athletic director has said that many kids caught up in this
mess "figured nothing was going to come from it." That's understandable,
because the signals we send on alcohol aren't entirely clear. After all, it
is adult America's drug of choice for celebration.

Having a drink at a party is perfectly appropriate sometimes. This wasn't
one of them.

It's illegal for kids to drink. On top of this societal judgment, these
kids made a personal commitment that they violated in spirit, at least.

These are not rules without reason. Adolescence is when a person's self
begins to emerge. Alcohol can be a toxin in that difficult but essential
process. Its abuse produces people who have grown older without growing up.

No one should want that for their children, or for anyone else's.