High school parties are always considered risky — especially when there's alcohol involved. But in the age of COVID-19, it's not just underage drinking that parents have to worry about. Case in point: A Massachusetts house party drew such a crowd earlier this month that it warranted a visit from police. When they arrived, officers were forced to break up a large group of teens who were all drinking, as well as not wearing masks or socially distancing. Now, the parents of the teen who threw the party are facing charges, and the entire high school has gone remote.
The party reportedly took place back on September 12.
It happened in the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, and was attended by approximately 50 to 60 teens who are students at nearby Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.
According to a press release from the Sudbury Board of Health, many of the students scattered and fled as soon as police arrived, and if they were questioned, they gave false information to investigators. Even so, it was immediately clear to police that none were wearing masks or keeping a safe distance from one another, which ultimately forced them to report the incident to health officials.
The events of the party immediately raised alarm bells.
"There are no known positive COVID cases involving these students at the time of this release," a press statement noted, but "Due to lack of information of who attended the event and the inability to consult directly with those students, the risk to the school community cannot be adequately assessed."
Because of the uncertainty, both the Board of Health and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School High School officials consulted with the school's physician and, collectively, it was decided that in-person learning would be delayed.
The party was thrown just three days before the school was set to reopen.
Although it wasn't set to return to full-time, in-person instruction, high school officials had planned a hybrid combination of in-person classes and virtual learning, which would have eased students back in to some kind of normalcy.
However, they'll have to wait longer for that now. According to NBC News, the school went all-remote when it reopened on September 15 and planned to do so for the next 14 days.
In the meantime, the family at the center of the party is in some very hot water.
It's unclear just how aware the parents were of the party or if they played a role in providing the alcohol. But regardless, they have since been charged with violating the state's social host law, which is a misdemeanor, Sudbury Police Chief Scott Nix told NBC News on Tuesday. And believe it or not, their teen was charged too.
According to the news outlet, the parents were reportedly charged in Framingham District Court and their child was charged in Framingham Juvenile Court. None of their names have been released to the public.
The "social host law" is serious stuff.
It sounds like administrators think the charge is warranted, though.
As of Monday, Massachusetts has reported more than 125,000 positive COVID-19 cases and has had more than 9,100 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fact that about a dozen teens ran off into the woods when cops came and another dozen or so gave false information means that testing and tracking the virus back could prove extremely difficult, should cases begin to spread.
"After the intensity of hard work and planning that has been done to be able to start school with students in-person, we are profoundly disappointed at this sudden change of plans," Superintendent Bella Wong, who also serves at the school's principal, wrote in a letter to parents shortly after the delay was announced.
Other parents are annoyed too.
"It's a huge problem and it trickles down. People have siblings," said Colleen Mazin, a Lincoln-Sudbury mom. "Luckily, elementary is going back for now, but if there is a case and it spreads, it's a huge problem."
Another school parent, Susan Haney, told NBC Boston that she thinks "parents need to step up a little bit more."
"I think we just have to really crack the whip with everybody," added Sudbury resident Joan Robinson. "I'm just so sick of hearing that people are being so careless."
For many parents, the severity of the pandemic has been difficult to convey to their teens.
Despite the rising death toll, parents still report that their teens feel invincible to it and often bucked quarantine rules to hang out with their friends. (Sans mask, of course.)
But although pediatric cases are less common than adult ones and do tend to be less severe, that isn't the case across the board. Many children and even teens are contracting serious cases of COVID-19 — and in some patients, it's even led to death. Just consider the story of Andre Guest, a 16-year-old from Indiana who died in April within days of contracting the virus. (At the time, his mom told People that her son was fine one day and suddenly fighting for his life the next.)
Young people have also spread the virus to family members despite being asymptomatic. Such was the case for a Florida 21-year-old who reportedly hung out with friends without a mask against his parents' wishes. Within days he had brought the virus back home to his family, where his father was infected and later died.
Now that we're nearly seven months into this pandemic, one thing's for sure: COVID-19 is real, and it poses significant risks. Despite how hard the struggle may be, we owe it to ourselves and our teens to get through to them about what they should (and should NOT) be doing.
