Troubled Teens Resources

Teen crisis intervention is often undertaken through many county programs and community efforts. The crisis of underage drinking is in many cases abetted by compliant parents under the misinformed notion that as long as the teens are drinking “at home”, they are safe.

In this small Virginia town, Operation Party Crashers was created to contradict that view.

“Gordon Hutson Tiller and his wife, Lou Anne Tiller, were charged with four counts each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. They face a May court hearing and were released on $10,000 bond early Saturday. Arrest records list Gordon Tiller as a sales representative and his wife as a housewife.

Both Tillers declined to comment yesterday afternoon. On each charge they face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.”

Lt. Doug Perry, a Henrico police spokesman, said the parents were asleep when the task force responded to calls about possible underage drinking.”
(Source)

In times past, a parent would inquire of a teenager going to a friend’s house if the parents were home. An affirmative answer was sufficient to give a parent assurance that adequate supervision is present.

Not so anymore. Those parents who have adopted some form of the often lamented progressive parenting philosophies seem to embrace the concept of being their teen’s buddy. It is an ill advised and out dated philosophy that has been responsible for a great deal of unnecessary tragedy. Today’s reality dictates that parents had better scrutinize the parents of their kid’s friends as thoroughly as they scrutinize the kids themselves.