"It's kind of scary, but it wasn't anything too much to worry about".

[Cowpunk]

Millard NE, a suburb of Omaha, leads the way in training our children to accept the growing police/national security state:

Waving for a booze-free dance

By Joe Dejka
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER


Every student arriving at Millard West High School's back-to-school dance Friday night had to pucker up.

To comply with a new screening procedure, each one had to take a deep breath and blow into an alcohol-detecting wand.

The Millard school board approved the screenings this year to cut down on alcohol-related incidents.

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The portable AlcoBlow wands, made by CMI of Owensboro, Ky., are about the size of a flashlight and can screen large numbers of students quickly — it takes about 10 seconds per person.

In some instances Friday, however, it took a little longer than that, and some students required repeated testing to get a reliable reading. At times a line of 10 or 20 students formed outside the school's main entrance, waiting for their turn.

Millard West student Taylor Lane, 15, passed through without a problem, a green light on the device signaling she was cleared to enter.

"It's kind of scary, but it wasn't anything too much to worry about," Taylor said safely inside the school.

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Administrators say the wands will be deployed throughout the school year at activities and sporting events across the district to help students resist peer pressure to drink.

Millard West Principal Greg Tiemann said he notified parents via phone message on Monday that students would be screened. During the week, school officials also put the word out to students.

"We told them that they're not all criminals and they don't all have alcohol problems — we're just trying to have a safe event for everybody," Tiemann said.

So it goes. Day by day, inch by inch, our right to privacy, to ownership of our own bodies and identities, is being carved away here in the "land of the free". These kids may never realize how much they've lost.

[JackDragna]

1. Ever had to chaperone/run a dance for high school kids?

The last thing you want is any of them showing up drunk. Not only do they become a threat to others, but they're a threat to themselves. Moreover, if they did anything that hurt anyone, the school could be held liable if there's any indication the school could've done something about it.

[Joe the Revelator]

3. So that's reason to treat every kid like he's a lush?

[JackDragna]

4. There's a nice logical fallacy there.

It's not treating kids like "lushes," it's realizing that schools, legally, act in lieu of parents when the schools are monitoring the kids. Schools are obligated to act in the kids' best interest and not remain neutral if there's an indication the kids are breaking the law or endangering themselves.

[brewens]

5. We always went drunk back in the 70's. Not so much for the proms

and other big events but almost always the semi-weekly ones we had. The very few fights that may or may not have been alcohol caused, were taken elsewhere. The cops were too close for that.

One great event was when one of our big football linemen (I was also one) had a few too many and ended up "driving the porcelain bus" in the bathroom. I had checked him out and determined he'd be ready to move eventually but needed to be left alone. I locked him in there from the inside and climbed over the top to get out. This to keep the rent-a-cop security guy from messing with him.

When he was ready to be packed out we got about 20 guys to form a human shield to cover the two of us hauling him out, so no one could see who it was. We got him in a car and out of there. Then we were actually able to sneak him in his house without waking his mom up and put him in bed. He was reasonably coherent by then and only needed a little help. I don't care how big you are, you shouldn't try and down a whole 5th of Yukon!

[JackDragna]

6. Man, what an ordeal.

Different age, I guess. If we just locked some kid in a bathroom now, we'd have our asses hanging on a wall somewhere. :)

[Luminous Animal]

8. Yes. And I gave them a choice... I call your parents or the cops.

[Warpy]

2. Once inside, they pulled out the hidden hip flasks they'd pinched

from antique stores and got plastered.

That's how the kids I went to school with handled being given the sniff test at the door. They arrived sober and left shitfaced.

[surrealAmerican]

7. What do they do if a kid tests positive?

Do they send the kid home, arrest the kid, expel her/him?