Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Since Kavanaugh's and Ford's High School Days, Teen Parties Haven't Changed
Much

by Esha Sarai

   Drinking and partying in high school have not changed much since 1982,
   the year Brett Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted Christine Blasey
   Ford when they were both teenagers.

   The accusation against now-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh has
   raised questions about the prevalence, the morality and the legality of
   risky behaviors by young people. Has the dynamic of drinking and sexual
   assault among high schoolers changed much?

   "[The parties are] usually at one of the kid's houses, and the parents
   aren't there," said Alayah McIntosh, who graduated in May 2018 from
   Norfolk Academy in Virginia.

   "Usually, there will be kids hanging out inside the house, all
   throughout the house. Sometimes, there are hookups going on in
   different rooms in the house," McIntosh said.

   Experts say numbers show those behaviors have declined, but only
   slightly. Underage drinking by 12- to 20-year-olds gradually declined
   between 1993 and 2013, according to the National Survey of Drug Use and
   Health.

   Statistics about sexual violence are less clear. The Rape, Abuse &
   Incest National Network (RAINN) says sexual violence has fallen by half
   in the past 20 years. However, a study by the National Institute of
   Justice suggests that reporting rape to police when it occurs has
   become more common in recent decades.

   Another risk for girls and young women is being drugged into sexual
   submission. Drinks can be "spiked," usually with hard alcohol, or can
   be laced with a sedative called Rohypnol, or "roofies."

   McIntosh described a friend being drugged, or roofied, against her will
   at a house party.

   "She thought she was watching her drink the whole night, but she ended
   up getting roofied. We never found out who did it. She wasn't drinking
   heavily at all. It was like, her second drink. She thought she was OK,
   but then she started stumbling around, and she ended up passing out,"
   McIntosh said.

   "High school party culture is sort of like college party culture --
   still a ton of drinking," said Nate Tinbite, who attends John F.
   Kennedy High School in Glenmont, Maryland, and is the president of the
   Montgomery County-wide Student Government.

   After Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that
   she feared Kavanaugh would rape and accidentally kill her, more girls
   and women have come forward with their own stories.

   Ananya Tadikonda is a student representative on the Montgomery County
   Board of Education in Maryland.

   "Assault culture is so pervasive," Tadikonda told VOA. It would
   surprise her, she said, if more girls came forward to report their
   assault. "Especially if it's a young girl that's my age. Because
   honestly, it took this many years for Dr. Ford to come forward, and
   that's because there's such a societal condemnation and victim-blaming
   culture that exists."

   According to the Centers for Disease Control, underage drinkers (aged
   12 to 20) account for 11 percent of all alcohol consumption in the
   United States.

   "I know that a lot of kids in my year drank," said Isabel Cabezas, an
   alumna of Holton Arms (Ford's alma mater). Cabezas chose not to drink
   alcohol until college, but she said many of her friends drank, and she
   was often left out for refusing to participate.

   "I can recall one incident where I was not invited to a party after a
   dance because I did not want to drink," she said.

   The memory of the drinking culture at her school contributed to her
   believing Ford's testimony, which moved her so much that she spent a
   day at the U.S. Capitol with other protesters.

   "All of her claims are so credible," Cabezas said. "So, I wanted to go
   support her because I think that it definitely is seen as a last-minute
   political move. But when you take a step back and consider that she
   started writing this letter to her congressperson before it was
   announced that Brett Kavanaugh was the nominee, I don't think that it's
   a political last-moment movement at all."