8th Graders Spiking Drinks? Yep.
I’ve known the author of this locally viral e-mail for about 7 years and, to my knowledge, there’s never been even the slightest bit of drama associated with her or her family. They’re good people and I believe the story.
And I thought this only happened in bars.
I am writing to you – parents of HP Intermediate & Middle School students – about an incident that occurred on February 12th at a Celebration 8 party at the Lakewood Country Club. Some of you have heard (and been quite startled and appalled) about the event but this letter is really trying to get beyond my normal group of friends and acquaintances to reach a broader group of parents. The school has said they cannot get involved since the incident occurred at an event that was not HPMS sponsored – although should the culprit be discovered and that culprit be part of an extra curricular school activity, they would deal with it by withdrawing privileges for a certain period of time. Given that scenario, I feel it my responsibility to inform you personally. We are so privileged to live in this neighborhood and have such faith in our kids but even smart, seemingly innocent 14 year olds, can lose their way sometimes and find dangerous pranks amusing. We’re here to tell you, they’re not amusing!
Briefly, my 8th grader was at this Celebration 8 party. He drank from open pitchers that were set out on tables in a self serve fashion. After consuming 3-4 drinks (mostly water) he became disoriented, finding it difficult to walk or talk. In his words, he felt completely ‘out of it’. Fortunately, one of the parents chaperoning the event was a doctor and he kept an eye on [child’s name] until we arrived to collect him. It was his opinion that [child’s name] drink had been spiked and he believes with a drug, not alcohol, which we later tried to determine through a blood/urine test. Unhappily, too much time had lapsed between the event and drawing of the fluids and so the analysis revealed no information as to the substance. Nevertheless, it seems that one of our fun-loving youth thought it would be amusing to see what would happen if they spiked a pitcher that night.
In the end, [child’s name] was fine…still a bit foggy the next day, but fine. But what saddens me is that he is seeing the world through slightly different eyes now. Are these ‘pranks’ something we want our kids exposed to? Of course the response down the track at future school and Celebration events will be to monitor all drinks and not serve anything from open vessels but is that all we should do? It seems to me that we need to use this experience to educate our kids. Actually, to educate ourselves too. We need to make them aware that there are dangerous drugs and silly people out there who don’t understand the ramifications of their actions. Please don’t let one of our children end up in the Emergency Room or worse because someone thought it was funny to spike a drink. I’m not an alarmist and I don’t want to appear over dramatic but this sort of silly stunt could easily get out of control.
I am sending this to you via my limited email address list. I would be so appreciative if you would do likewise – forward it on to all those you know – and perhaps we can spread the word without asking the school to help.
Since everyone was drinking from these pitchers, did this parent hear from anyone else whose child had a similar experience?
I received this e-mail this morning. My first thought was “weird”.Then the questions started popping into my head.
I wondered why the Celebration 8 committee hadn’t sent out an e-mail asking if any of the kids had felt sick after the party? Surely other kids would have been affected.
Were they nervous because of the suspicion of “spiked” drinks? What if it had been food poisoning? Could it be that that particular boy just had a bug? Can’t drugs and alcohol be detected for several hours?
Anyway, perhaps this a lesson that we should teach our kids not to have open drinks that can be tampered with.
I have a few questions, one of which Jen has already covered. If this boy was the only one, perhaps the pitcher was not what was spiked. Another is why is it automatically assumed a student is responsible? Is it beyond the realm of possibility that an employee of the club is responsible? Not meaning to cast a cloud of suspicion on anyone, but an employee would have had just as much access to either an open pitcher or an individual glass as each student in attendence had. Lastly, were the police notified? If a child was drugged at a party, the police department needs to hear about that so they can conduct a proper and thorough investigation.
I really appreciate those who make Celebrations 7 and 8 happen. Big parties, everyone invited. Hope this incident doesn’t interfere with future events.
I agree with Jen, TK, and Rebecca all said. Unless this kid was chugging the drugged pitcher then surely there had to be other kids affected. One other thought, the kid experimented with something he wasn’t familiar with, the chaperone thought something was up by the way he was acting and asked the kid if he was alright. The kid said he felt “out of it” and didn’t know why. The chaperone and the parents believed the kid b/c he wouldn’t be the type to experiment with drugs or alcohol, he’s a good kid.
My sister was there at the event, and she said that something seemed funny, I don’t know if she actually had any of the contaminated beverages…
I’m sure this comment will create a lot of uproar, but it seems this particular class, which are in 8th grade right now, are quite a wild bunch. I have a relative in this class, as well as one in the 7th grade right now, and they tell some hair raising stories of these kids behavior. Drugs, knives, bullying, etc. NOT ALL THE KIDS – but there does seem to be a group of them that are particularly wild.
The emailer said “spread the word”. What word? I do my best not to spread conjecture, which this is. It may be true that someone spiked the punch, but it is just as likely that someone did not. No facts, no story, just rumours. It’s called journalism.
All of this is leading to a generation of children who “fear” everything. I pray to god that nothing bad happens to my kids (and others), but rather than avoid all possibilities, I teach my kids to be aware, to be safe, and how to handle situations. But in the end, things are going to happen and they have to learn. It saddens me that my children will not grow up in the same environment that I did, mostly because of baseless fear.
Sorry for partying?
Have bottled, sealed drinks in individual servings from now on – end of problem.
@D – this wasn’t posted by a “journalist”, it was posted by a local mom who blogs here. Most of us appreciate her postings about things just like this that are going on in our community.
@D: Spreading the word that this happened to a student is the way to find out if others know or experienced anything. It’s also a heads up to party planners to guard their pitchers carefully or serve drinks in bottles and cans. I’m glad the mom wrote it and Merritt posted it.
Hold on to your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
8th grade is when kids start really experimenting. I don’t know where this letter writing mom grew up but this is pretty par for the 8th grade. Maybe it’s because they will be freshmen next year? It seems to be a right of passage in the PC. Wait till they can drive, that’s fun… There is always a “wild class” or “group” that is leading your precious kids astray, that is THEIR choice.I’m pretty sure if your kid has attended HP schools from the beginning, they know who the wild kids are and so do the parents. I have lived here all my life and the environment has never changed!! Chill
When I was at HPMS I was slanging rocks
I was there supervising and I thought it looked like all the kids were having a great safe time. I wasn’t too far from the drinks/snacks and my child said he drank a ton of sprite while he was there and he was fine when we left and got home. I did hear a parent walk by and say that “someone spiked the sprite”. I do know that there was one child who tried to “sneak in”, but I think they caught him. Don’t know if this is related.
@GMOM. This is like hearing about the kids in the trunks of cars on Baltimore or the drug alley near the high school. We’d rather know about it, but that doesn’t mean we’re freaking out about it.
Why is it when a parent is concerned about an incident, and makes his/her concerns known, is that parent automatically told to “chill” or to “get used to it”? It was the opinion of a doctor at the party that the effects the child was experiencing were drug induced, not the parent’s. Lets respect the parent who has tried to inform the community of an event that affected their family, instead of assuming the worst in either the parent or the child. Remember, people who post here are people we know. Please be kind.
Seriously? Sounds like the personal responsibility train has once again gone off the tracks: otherwise good kid experiments, kid gets spooked, kid gets caught, kid lies and blames another kid, parent can’t handle thought of kid making a mistake or the social stigma, parent blames others. Been happening since cavemoms busted their young sons for smoking willow leaves.
Yes, I talked to my 8th grader and friends about this … they said there was a rumor going around the party that the drinks were spiked so they didnt drink anything the whole night! I remember picking them up and not understanding why they were sooo thirsty and hungry!
Why in heck would an employee of the club have spiked the drink? Wake up: eight-graders do this sort of thing, even our perfect little kids. either the chaperones need to watch a little more closely or go to individual drinks. and, of course, parents need to keep up with their children a little better. ok, i’m done with my lecture.
Bubble parents need to grab reality. Of course the hired help did it, their precious treasures are incapable of sin.
I just read this post. I have an 8th grader at MIS. He didn’t want to go to celebration 8 party even though “all of his friends” were going. I’m shocked and alarmed at this. It will be brought up immediately when he gets home from school today. I’m so thankful to the parent who wrote this!!!! I would not have known otherwise.
did any one ever stop to think that there is NO evidence what so ever to this story? sure there was one kid who felt funny, but surely more than one kid would have felt funny if it was an open pitcher. Lets all stop being parkies for a moment people… no matter how hard u parents try to hide the real world from us kids, we know its there. And dont blame a ceertain group of people in 8th grade that are “a bit wild”. its called being a teenager people. we learn from our mistakes, we dont need our parents sending out emial that we were DRUGGEd for god’s sake!