PONDERING LOST BOATERS, TEENAGERS CALL RISK-TAKING A RITE OF PASSAGE

If there is anything that could render the recent drowning of four
teenagers off City Island even more tragic and shocking, it is
recollections by family and friends of the boys as sensible and intelligent
and often prudent.

The boys, who have not been found, are believed to have set off in a
rowboat for nearby Hart Island on Jan. 24 after attending a party. They
placed a frantic 12-second call to 911 saying their boat was taking on
water, and it presumably sank.

But in discussing the news last week, many teenagers admitted to pulling
dangerous stunts without considering the danger.

One enduring aspect of being a teenager, they said, even one with otherwise
solid judgment and a bright future, is the tendency to court danger by
creating risky pranks, inventing stunts and generally searching for mischief.

Suspension of judgment, lapses in discretion and ignoring consequences all
seem as much part of the teenage years as acne, awkwardness and attitude.
That acts of daring could lead to funerals is something many young people
fail to envision when embarking on adventures fueled by curiosity,
restlessness, boredom, defiance or impulsiveness - often compounded by alcohol.

Oren Benshar, 16, a sophomore at Great Neck North High School, said that
seeking out danger can become an obsession for teenagers in suburbs
blessedly free of it. Many teenagers in Great Neck, on Long Island, do
dangerous things to be considered cool, he said. Kids with rich parents
sell marijuana, Ivy League-bound students throw eggs at houses and
vandalize cars, and adolescents regularly take their parents' cars for joy
rides.

"If you get hurt or caught, you're even cooler, because it's like, `I do
crazy stuff and I don't care.' "

Kevin Dunn, 16, a junior at Floral Park Memorial High School in Nassau
County, recalled the time that he and his friends pushed one of their
friends in a shopping cart into a moving car. Thankfully, they got away
with a few bruises, light punishment and paying the driver for repairs, he
said.

Robert Levitt, 17, a senior at New Rochelle High School, remembered a party
where a "bunch of kids got drunk" and started jumping off the roof of the
host's house. Other common stunts include taking joy rides by clinging to
the back of a car or standing on the bumper, he said.

"We know kids who smoke a lot of pot and drive on I-95 totally stoned," he
said. "They do it so they can talk about it the next day."

Robert Berretta, 15, from Yonkers, said that he recently climbed into a
trash barrel and let his friends roll him down a large hill. "It was
scary," he said. "You had no idea if you were going to hit anything."

Robert said he and and his friends make videos of themselves doing stunts
that are both wacky and dangerous. They take turns hopping on shopping
carts, skateboards or bicycles and riding them down steep hills, all for
the thrill of the crash.

"Basically we do it because we're bored out of our minds," said one of the
friends, Steven Antonucci. "We show the tapes to our parents. They think
we're crazy, but they don't really mind. They know we could be doing worse
stuff."

Other misbehavior among people they know includes: throwing rock-filled
snowballs at cars, assaulting homeless men, and getting drunk at parties
and challenging stronger teenagers to fights.

Jessica Schmitz, 16, a junior at White Plains High School, recalled jumping
off cliffs into reservoirs in northern Westchester, even after one of her
friends had been arrested for trespassing and another broke his back doing it.

"Anything that is more forbidden is more enticing," she said, adding that
some of her friends grab onto car bumpers while skating.

"They like to take something normal and push it further, blow it out of
proportion," she said.

John Mahoney, 16, a sophomore at Garden City High School, said that
drinking is both the core of his friends' social scene and the fuel for the
unending search "for kicks and giggles."

At the Roosevelt Field shopping mall on Friday, he and his friend Mike
Olsen, 15, a sophomore at Garden City High School, showed off their false
identification, out-of-state drivers licenses with their picture, but with
fake names and birthdays showing them to be 21.

Caitlin King and Muffy Hafner, both 16 and juniors at Bronxville High
School, said that their social scene also centers around drinking.
Typically, they said, girls get drunk, get loud, then get obnoxious and get
into fistfights.

"It's funny to a point, but when the girl's getting her stomach pumped,
it's scary," said Muffy, who added that a recent school dance was canceled
after a girl showed up drunk.

"I spent $1,000 on my dress and makeup and everything, and they shut down
the dance because of this drunken girl," said Muffy, who was shopping in
the Westchester Mall on Thursday carrying a Burberry handbag and a bunch of
snazzy shopping bags filled with recent purchases.

"I know kids who used to jump off roofs for fun," she said. "They weren't
drunk, they were just stupid."

"My friend tried snowboarding off his roof, and made it too," she said. "It
was cool."

Gloria Modesto, 15, a sophomore at Great Neck South High School, said that
a 14-year-old girl she knows took her parents' car and wound up crashing
into her own house.

"Kids do crazy things because they think they're - what's the word?" she
said, turning to her friend Vita Kazais, 15, for help.

"Indestructible," Vita said.

"Yeah," Gloria echoed, "Indestructible."