h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

got to go busting with my mum. this involves rounding up underage drinkers from school who have snuck out and gone to the pub. she is a teacher there, see? for christ's sake, hwo hypocritical is that? im using my knowledge, hard earned by avoiding busting myself last year and the year before, to round up people younger than me. im better than this

what makes it worse is that its raining.

Chuck some diced carrots and milk into the bog and feign an illness

I agree with Gosho. Or just behave all grown up, and tell her to go alone.

I notice you posted this 2+ hours ago, and as it is now nearly 1am, that means that you couldn't have been heading out before 10pm and a bit at the earliest. So at least your Mum gave them a bit of drinking time before starting the rounds.

Here's to Tom's mum-

Yeah

Is she or what?

I have to say I thought that was one of the perks of turning 18!

i had to go with her, cos she is scared of going into pubs on her own at night. not really surprised. ive currently stopped drinking anyway, so it just interupted an evening in front of the TV...

Is it her responsibility to round up these underage kids, or does she do it just because she cares? Don't the pubs check the kids ID cards for age? Or is it easy to fake an ID? What is the drinking age in England?

18...and they're somewhat better at letting drinking at 16 than the US, who have more drink-driving accidents (coicidence?)

shes a teacher with the school. so she has to.

haha
*points and laughs*

awwww

^. .^
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Our school never did that

nor ours...we were allowed out to the pub from the end of year 11...(boarders, that is, day girls do what they like )
not that i went that often
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Guru
CommunityArtist

We didn't even get that...we had a thing about no drinking and driving....this is an issue that really boils my blood because:

There is an inverse relationship between drinking age and drink-driving accidentns. You hear about them all the time here...on continental Europe, where there hardly is a drinking age, you don't really hear about them...coincidence? think not. 'Coz the drinking age is so high (and everything highly publicised), the youth have a lot of exposure to alcohol-related things, and thus, the pressure is on. Either one of two things happen: 1) under-age drinking. Because it is illegal, there is no adult-supervision, and thus youngsters don't know how much they can tolerate etc. They drive and an accident occurs. 2) Drinking when allowed to. However because they've been waiting *this* long to do it, it's been building up, and then they totally le go, and lose control so to speak. They drive, and thus another accident.

I hope this all makes sense. It did in my mind...

it does make sense to me...but we certainly do have drink-driving incidents in britain...i mean, i hear more about stuff like that happening in britain than in america, so maybe it's more about where you are...and also, if it was more commonplace, you'd think you'd hear about it less in the news and stuff...
what are the laws like about it in the USA?
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Each state used to do their own drinking age. However it may be Federal now, I'm not sure. Kansas used to be 18 for 3/2 beer and 21 for anything 6% or over when I was in highschool (late 70's). Now the drinking age in Kansas is 21 for anything alcoholic. All the bars card, and if they suspect fake id's they take them at the door. They're very harsh on drunk drivers. Well, again I guess that depends on the city and state that you're in. College towns may be more lenient of course, since it's harder to enforce, and fake id's are prevalent. Since you pretty much have to have a car here (unless you live in a large city like LA or New York with public transit) you're pretty much screwed if you lose your license because of a DUI...

It doesn't matter what the legal stuff says. If it's a school rule and the pupils are supposed to adhere to them, then the teacher has to go and bust. It's in their contract. I had to when I worked at a boarding school.

You also have to consider that in the US, nearly *every* 16-yr old gets their license. Depending on the state, they may even be able to get it the very *day* they turn 16 (if they live in a state that allows them to get a learner's at 15-1/2; in other states, they need to wait until they're 16 to get a learner's permit). Once they have their license, they're immediately out on the road in a big, dumb, dangerous machine, whether their ablility to drive has been impaired by drinking or not.

You admit that the underage kids are drinking in the UK too, but how many of them actually have a driver's license, or the slightest clue how to drive at that age? Most live within walking (stumbling) distance of at least one pub, so no need to drive, right? In the US, one usually needs to drive to a bar (and therefore home from it, too ), unless you happen to live in a city with neighborhood bars.

There's more difference than just the legal drinking age. It sounds like in the UK, because the legal drinking age is 18, many kids will try to get away with it at 16 (maybe younger ones too?). In the US, many kids wait until they go to Uni for that first underage drink, which would be age 18 (approximately), because it's the first time they've been out on their own. Yes, there are those who don't drink until they're legal in both countries. Yes, there are those who drink much earlier than the ages I've suggested, or begin drinking at some in-between age. Or not at all - there are those who have seen the devastating effects of alcoholism first hand and want nothing to do with strong drink, *ever*.

I think the big difference is the age when people generally learn to drive in the two cultures. Since you have a usable public transit system in the UK, there's no real *need* to drive until you're much older, and therefore driving is more often delayed until after *most* people have begun using more judgement in their drinking habits.

You also have to consider that the population and size of the two countries are significantly different. I don't know the exact figures for either country, but let's say that there's 100 drunk driving accidents in the UK in any given year. Because of the significantly smaller size of the UK, you might hear about every single one that occurs in the entire country. On the other hand, if there were the same number in the US, that's only 2 per state, and chances are very good that most of the country would never hear about any except the local ones. The country is just too vast to report every little thing from every little town to the entire country.

Just trying to put things in perspective...