Movement Warns Graduates of the Consequences of 'Beach Week' Partying

Parents, school administrators and police officials are joining forces to address problems that result from "Beach Week," the annual celebrations by newly minted high school graduates who race to the Delaware shore for unchaperoned fun.

The vast majority go and return without much incident. But some wind up arrested or sick, and authorities warn that students can lose college scholarships or worse. Several parents and others said activism on the issue appears to be rising this year, in part a result of a jump in arrests last year.

"It is a hot-button issue," Arlington County parent Margie Bell said.

In Rehoboth Beach, 72 people were arrested for underage possession or consumption of alcohol from May 27 to June 23 last year, compared with 22 arrested during the same period the year before, according to Police Chief Keith Banks.

As a result, kids and parents are jointly signing voluntary contracts of behavior, and police are asking parents to take a bigger role, including staying in hotels nearby. Parents are meeting to discuss strategies to keep kids home or find alternative celebrations, according to more than a dozen people involved in the efforts.

Arlington Public Schools joined with the PTA Family Network this spring to host for the first time a panel for parents on the pitfalls of Beach Week, which included Banks, parents and educators. The reaction to the panel was so positive, said Bell, one of the organizers, that it will be repeated next year -- but several months earlier, before parents sign real estate leases for beach houses.

Theo Stamos, chief deputy commonwealth's attorney in Arlington, who was one of the panel members, said she wishes more parents would tell their kids to stay home.

"I think it is a little indulgent," she said. "These kids are not returning from war. They are graduating from high school. . . . There are rewards for doing it, but not spending $1,000 unchaperoned at a beach doing nothing but drinking and God knows what else."

Her teenage son won't be going when he is old enough, she said.

Cindy Gray, a parent of two children who have attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Montgomery County, said parents there are looking for alternatives to Beach Week. Her eldest daughter skipped it and went to New York with two friends, and Gray plans on taking her younger daughter, a senior this year, to Florida.

One version of a behavior contract was supplied to parents by Arlington schools and the PTA Family Network. It asks teens to promise they won't host parties at beach houses and will devise a buddy system so nobody in the house is alone. Parents pledge not to support underage drinking parties, although Banks said not every parent follows that principle.

"Parents have to be parents," he said. "I get calls all the time about this.

"In one call last year, the parents were upset and crying and telling me I've ruined their child's [future] because they had a college scholarship revoked because of an arrest. I had one parent tell me, 'My child was just drinking beer and didn't even buy it in your town.' I said, 'How did they get the beer?' And the parent said, 'I bought it for them.'

"I ask you: Is that a responsible parent?"