It's just prom, right? One night in 188 days of school. Even measured against, say, homecoming or graduation, it’s still the most magical.
Five, 10 years from now, they won’t remember the locker combination they dialed up each and every school day for four years, but prom night is different. Prom is about making memories.
That has been the case for generations.
What might have changed is this most memorable rite of passage has also become one of the deadliest.
Each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a third of alcohol-related traffic fatalities involving teens occur during prom and graduation season, which runs from April to June.
It’s why Briana Daugherty, Nicole Nash and Samantha Healy, peer leaders at Archer High School in Lawrenceville, have decided to take the Prom Promise, pledging to avoid alcohol and drugs during their prom April 30. They are encouraging their peers to do the same.
The peer leaders say you can pick out the kids who have already been drinking or using drugs by the time they arrive at prom. They’re either stumbling out of their stretch limos or making a fool of themselves.
“I’ve personally had to carry people to their cars to ride home with someone else because they couldn’t drive,” Nash said. “I’ve had to stop fights and take keys away from people.”
Daugherty, Healy and Nash all know of at least one person who was killed driving while drunk.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 5,000 people under the age of 21 die annually from underage drinking. Of those, 1,900 are related to drunken driving, and alcohol has a role in crashes responsible for nearly half of all deaths of 15- to 20-year-olds during prom season.
In addition, studies show that underage drinking can lead to other health hazards, such as contracting a sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS, through unprotected sex.
Some parents think they can teach their teens to drink responsibly, believing that if they serve their children beer and wine at home they may be less likely to binge drink.
Local parents, however, disagree.
Martin Daugherty, Briana's father, says that "sends the wrong message."
Not only are teens not mentally or emotionally mature enough to handle alcohol, many of their parents aren't either, Daugherty said.
The 41- year-old father of two teens, said neither he nor his wife, Jennifer, drinks, and they teach their children that fun can be had without alcohol.
"We've always told them fun is what you make it," Daugherty said. "You can drink Kool-Aid and cook and still have fun."
Surveys that track where and how teenagers get alcohol show that nearly 45 percent of kids ages 12 to 14 -- about 700,000 middle schoolers -- got alcohol at home in the past month. Sixteen percent got it from a parent or guardian.
Briana Daugherty and her fellow peer leaders agreed that sharing a drink with their parents would never happen in their homes.
“Is that even ethical?” she asked. “I don’t think that’s right.”
Steve Boling, the head counselor at Archer, said that although he is well aware students drink, how they get it is another story.
“We’re not a goody two shoes,” he said. “We’re trying to get them to think about what they are doing and make good decisions, to be a good friend and tell someone to stop.”
To get that done and make these milestones safer, Archer and other Gwinnett County schools have planned a flurry of activities aimed at curbing binge drinking, impaired driving and alcohol-related accidents.
At Archer for instance, seniors are encouraged to sign pledge cards promising to be drug- and alcohol-free during prom season. The school has also planned a special assembly and will sell daisies, which represent life, to raise awareness and add to the romance of prom.
“Every school does this slightly differently, but it can be anything from assemblies and guest speakers to hands-on activities,” Boling said.
Cobb County high schools, including Walton, Wheeler and Kennesaw Mountain, have also launched programs to raise awareness about alcohol use.
Several schools are promoting National Youth Traffic Safety Month, held annually in May, to encourage safe-driving projects prior to prom and graduation season. In connection with the month's activities, students can win up to $10,000 if they enter the “Act Out Loud” competition aimed at preventing distracted driving. Entry ends April 11.
"The more we do to raise awareness, the better," said Harris Blackwood, director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. "We lose more teens this time of year than at any other time, and we are using every tool in our arsenal to keep that number low."
Blackwood said his office sponsors Students Detrimental Decisions programs in about 160 Georgia schools. The goal is to warn students about the dangers of impaired driving and its consequences, including possibly killing someone.
"Young people think they are invincible," he said. "We’re trying to convince them otherwise. "
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