Editor's note: This column is run in conjunction with today's Football Friday cover story, "Policing our athletes."
In some local households, underage drinking is not frowned upon.
Just as much as first words and first home runs, the first time a kid gets drunk is recorded in familial history as a milestone.
But puking from too much to drink is not a ticket into adulthood the way killing a bear was for a Native American adolescent. It's purely a physiological reaction to the body's blood-alcohol level being too high.
And there's nothing manly about hurtling head first into a fifth of whiskey and coming out with alcohol poisoning - although some parents still herald their sons and daughters as proudly taking after them in regards to their overly liberal view of the drink.
George Florey, a drug and alcohol counselor with Northumberland County, estimates that 75 percent of kids in high school drink in some form; that's close to the 84 percent cited in today's accompanying article in Football Friday. In either case, it's far too high.
"Teenagers think they're invincible," Florey said. "They get this misconstrued idea that real men hold their booze.
"In the coal region, drinking is widely accepted. Still, kids think of alcohol as the forbidden fruit, and when they get a chance to run free, they over-do it."
Given that, what can a school really do to a student-athlete when they get caught with alcohol?
Suspensions? Dismissals from a team? Ultimately, these are knee-jerk reactions and only a Band-Aid to sooth an outraged public.
This is no more true than in Mount Carmel, where half the people we talk to want the kids in the middle of a Sept. 24 incident that Mount Carmel Township police are investigating, which allegedly involved Mount Carmel Area football players and alcohol, tossed on their ears and gone from the team, and the other half provide this paltry defense: everyone does it.
More than anything, this is an indictment of the ignorance in our area and others, places where high school athletes are idolatrized.
Just because he can run and catch a ball does not give any teenager license to act irresponsibly and avoid consequences.
Florey has worked in both California and Texas, places where high school football isn't too shabby, and has seen similar attitudes displayed by people about their local football.
"Grown men get emotionally tied to high school football, and kids get sucked right in.
"I think people tend to put them up as heroes. Well, they're not. Schools are quite permissive of this boys-will-be-boys attitude, and this is what gets these boys killed."
As of yet, not one member from the Mount Carmel Area School Board has come forward publicly to throw their support behind the two-game suspensions issued by Red Tornadoes' head football coach Carmen DeFrancesco.
Is there dissension in the ranks? And if so, what message does that send to any impressionable youth?
While Florey said he isn't aware of the recent allegations and punishments regarding alcohol-related incidents and athletes, he has seen it all before - the suspensions, the dismissals, the lack of a larger picture.
He also believes suspensions or punishments alone will not do anyone any good.
"If it did dissuade them, they wouldn't do it," he said. "Suspending them doesn't mean crap. The key is dealing with the person instead of suspending them and not addressing the problem. They should be called to task personally, and on their own.
"Being accountable for their behavior, in coordination with a suspension, is a good idea, but only when coaches are firm in asking what these kids were thinking."
And that's the million-dollar question. What are kids thinking?
Several websites about teenage and alcohol tried to minimize the fact that kids get a jolt from going out in packs, doing something their not supposed to and pushing the envelope. Instead they suggested kids only drink because they're depressed, or come from a rough background.
"That's nonsense," Florey countered. "That's looking for excuses. Could it be that drinking causes depression? Teenagers are teenagers and not always known for their best judgment."
Adults; however, should be.