2 Eleven Year Olds Drink themselves to Death

This is so sad, and so wrong and I think the parents should face some responsibility for this. What were 11 year olds doing with so much liquor? I couldn't even imagine alcohol binges at that age, and yes I played hookie from school, but I went home to watch tv...

ap.tbo.com...
"If two kids are intoxicated to the point that they lay down on the prairie and die, there's some negligence there," Lake County Sheriff Bill Barron said Wednesday. "Somebody has got to be responsible for these two kids just laying down and dying. If it's the system, we're going to have to work on the system
Alcohol poisoning killed Frankie, the sheriff said. Frankie had a blood-alcohol level of 0.50 percent - more than six times Montana's 0.08 percent legal threshold for drunken driving, and well more than enough to kill an adult. Justin's reading was 0.20. He died of alcohol poisoning and hypothermia. Temperatures Friday night dropped to the mid-20s.

Ahh...Darwinism at it's finest....at least these two idiots are gone from the gene pool...

Sad as it is...you'd think anyone, even an 11 year old, would know when enough is enough....jeez....

I'll have to read the article closer before I agree with going after the parents... If a kid skips school, and then gets into alchohol, I'm not so sure the parents can be liable here....and I'd think that losing your kid is punishment enough...

"What we're finding is that they pilfered it from different places," the sheriff said.

[Edited on 4-3-2004 by Gazrok]

I know a lot of people find this sad and stuff.
I see it as two less idiots in the world screwing stuff up.
Is there a Darwin Award available for these guys?

I blame the parents because alcohol should not be so easily accessible to a child of any age. I have alcohol in my house but my kids certainly don't know where it is and don't have access to it either. Plus my kids know that alcohol make people drunk and makes them act stupid and as my seven year old says, makes them stink.

Parents should talk to their children about drugs, alcohol, sex, everything...and advise them of the negatives...if parents are upfront and honest with their kids, maybe the kids wouldn't see the need to sneak off and try stuff on their own.

plus I am thinking this town has an alcoholic problem, if you read the article, it mentions that a brother of one of the boys died from smoke inhalation because he was drunk and passed out when his trailer caught on fire.

I feel sorry for the parents, but they should be investigated.

Geeze guys your harsh... these are 11yr old kids we are talking about... Yes they did something really dumb.
But thats what kids do... they usuly learn by there mistakes...but now they wont have the chance,

I know many kids where i live whos perants dont give a dam about them ..letting them out till 2am +
sometimes its the lack of attention at home...they get a bottle with there mates thinking its big...and sometimes it goes wrong..

I think there needs to be more done to teach kids the dangers of drink,
just as we do with drugs.

It points to a larger problem, folks. Maybe you didn't notice it, but the kids were AmerInds and lived on a reservation where there's a shockingly high amount of alcohol abuse.

Blame's going to be hard to fix... were the parents in jobs where they *could* leave and search for the kids? If your only income was at a WalMart an hour away (as an example) your super might not let you off to go talk to the school and see what kind of trouble your kid was in *this* time. Or you might not want to let your workplace know that your kid was in trouble with school frequently. Or you might not have a cell phone...

or... a lot of things. But there's a bigger picture here than two kids drinking themselves to death -- as you may have read in that article, an older brother died when he was too intoxicated to escape a trailer fire.

It points to a larger tragedy, and I'm not sure what's being done about it. I know people are trying, but the solutions they're trying aren't working like they should be.

By 11, I'm sure they know the dangers....

I have alcohol in my house but my kids certainly don't know where it is and don't have access to it either

Do you really believe that? Weren't you a kid once? I knew and could get to all the porn, alchohol, and guns my parents had by the time I was 8...but I had common sense enough to know better...

Unless you have that stuff in locked cabinets (and usually even regardless of that)...you're pretty much gambling on that one...(of course, I had made duplicate keys long ago in my case, but that's another matter).

The police said they stole it from various sources...this implies that it may not have been from home.... This was obviously the plan for the day, and that's why we are a little more hard on these idiots....

Maybe you didn't notice it, but the kids were AmerInds and lived on a reservation where there's a shockingly high amount of alcohol abuse

Interesting point, and yep, I had originally missed that little factoid....

[Edited on 4-3-2004 by Gazrok]

I heard this story on the radio yesterday. It was reported that the 2 - eleven yr olds had been outside or "missing" for 2 days.

So I have to say, where were the parents or guardians ? Why wasn't someone looking for these kids?

gaz my kids aren't allowed in our bedroom without permission and having to knock. my door usually locked and our alcohol...which isn't a large supply is kept in our bedroom closet on the very top shelf, even I need a step stool to get to it.

trust me, when I say.. my kids don't even know where it is.

in my and my husband's upbringing, parents rooms are like the forbidden zone...up to now, I hesitate to enter my own mom's room. it's the way we were brought up, respect your elders and respect their space.

I don't think that you can necessarily blame it on the parents, kids can actually be quite deviouse and once they decide that something will be fun to do then they will usually try to do it. The fact that their parents won't approve makes it all the more of an adventure.
WW you say that your kids don't know where you keep the alcohol in your house. Are you sure that by the time they are a little older you will still be able to say the same thing? I just know how hard it is to keep things hidden from kids. like trying to keep christmas presents hidden.
The thing with kids is that they don't always see the danger in things, it's just a shame that these two children won't get a chance to learn from their mistake.

I don't see the parents being to blame for this, just two stupid kids not knowing when enough is enough. At least they're not around anymore to contaminate the rest of the world with their stupidity.

At that age I certainly knew about alcohol, drugs e.t.c. and yes, I did sneak with friends and have a drink. We certainly knew when to stop though. That's what kids do, did you ever think that protecting them in cotton wool is what's making them more rebellious? The more you try to tighten your grip the more they will slip through your fingers. The more you try to bring down the law on them the more they will try and defy you.

Just warn them of the dangers and show them respect, and trust them enough to show the same respect back that's what I say.

When I was younger there were many bad things I could've got involved in, but I didn't want to let my parents down as they were so good to me, and I didn't want to throw away the trust of the freedom they had given me to find out these things.


[Edited on 4-3-2004 by John Nada]

Of course I don't know which of you have kids or not, but wouldn't you want to know where your kids are at and what they're doing ?

Yes, I will be the first to admit that when I was a kid, I got into things that my parents didn't know about. However, I always had to tell them where I was going ( or supposed to be going ) who I would be with, etc.

I know that the parents cannot be there 24 / 7, but for a whole 2 days, no one has heard from the kids.

When I was young and told my parents that I was doing an overnighter at a friends, I had to call when I got there, and would have to speak to my parents early the next day, just so they knew where I was at.

I still say that someone should have known the wherabouts of these kids.

I cannot be sure of anything, but I do hope that the way me and husband raise our children will help them to become smart individuals who will come to us first before listening their peers.

We were raised in a strict environment and we both feel that it helped us become the individuals we are, we only can hope to do the same and instill the proper values into our children.

btw, my boys know about the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse firsthand, unfortunately we have had members of our extended family that have overdosed infront of all of us. And drinking alcohol in front of our children is not a common event. The only time my kids have ever see daddy drink, is at parties and they usually get into a panic and come and tell me, don't drink mommy, daddy won't be able to drive.

It is how your raise your children, that affects what they may or may not do in the future.

Originally posted by elevatedone
Of course I don't know which of you have kids or not, but wouldn't you want to know where your kids are at and what they're doing ?

I still say that someone should have known the wherabouts of these kids.

So I have to say, where were the parents or guardians ? Why wasn't someone looking for these kids?

elevated, it says in the article that parents notified tribal police that the kids were missing the same day that they were missing. Why are you assuming that no one was looking for them?

Of course, their whereabouts should have been known, however, when two kids take off, skipping school, it's up to them to let it be known where they're going. How could the parents have stopped them from doing it?

These kids should have known better, obviously, and it's a tragic mistake. But I don't think you can lie blame on the parents.

Originally posted by parrhesia

Originally posted by elevatedone
Of course I don't know which of you have kids or not, but wouldn't you want to know where your kids are at and what they're doing ?

I still say that someone should have known the wherabouts of these kids.

So I have to say, where were the parents or guardians ? Why wasn't someone looking for these kids?

elevated, it says in the article that parents notified tribal police that the kids were missing the same day that they were missing. Why are you assuming that no one was looking for them?

Of course, their whereabouts should have been known, however, when two kids take off, skipping school, it's up to them to let it be known where they're going. How could the parents have stopped them from doing it?

These kids should have known better, obviously, and it's a tragic mistake. But I don't think you can lie blame on the parents.

I missed that part of the article, I was relying on the report that I had heard on the radio. I'll go back and read that report that is linked here.

sorry about that.

damn I must have been a prude or a nerd,

cuz at 11, I had no interest in boys or alcohol. I was too busy with my Donkey Game, watching cartoons and reading books.

now when I turned 16, things did get interesting

gaz my kids aren't allowed in our bedroom without permission and having to knock. my door usually locked and our alcohol...which isn't a large supply is kept in our bedroom closet on the very top shelf, even I need a step stool to get to it.

I understand...neither was I, but it didn't stop me from using a steak knife to jimmy the lock, and then go snooping.... It's just what kids do...and if they are ever home when you aren't, you can bet that the first place they'll go, is somewhere they aren't supposed to be...

WW, how old are your kids?

maybe that's the difference...I quit my job to stay home and raise my children.

while growing up, I was never home alone, neither was my husband, in our culture, there is always a motherly figure in the household to cook and be home when the kids arrive...

so it is probably a combination of values instilled by our parents and our culture.

oops, sorry parrhesia, my boys are 5 and 7 years old.

[Edited on 3-4-2004 by worldwatcher]

Originally posted by asala
Geeze guys your harsh... these are 11yr old kids we are talking about... Yes they did something really dumb.
But thats what kids do... they usuly learn by there mistakes...but now they wont have the chance,

Yes, learning by making mistakes is part of growing up, learning, and so on. This would count as not only a mistake, but a big, fat, stupid, careless, mistake that only someone suffering from 'Head-up-ass-disease' would be caught doing. I don't mean ditching school to go tie one on. Or even just sittin' down with a buddy and getting hammered for the hell of it. That would just be typical 'screwing around' type behavior. These guys went way past that point.

Blood alcohol content of .5 and .2 is not normal drinking or even good ol' fashion piss drunk drinking. (Maybe the .2 but not .5, and especially not when you're 11y/o) Let's say this kid was 100lbs.
For .08 at 100lbs. is about 2 drinks.(1 Drink=1.25 oz. @ 80 proof, with a reduction of .01 per every 40min. approx.)
That means to hit a .5 this 'loser in the making' drank roughly 12 shots within an hour. A normal can of soda is 12oz. which is a little less but close to what we're looking at. Add in the fact that booze doesn't taste that great straight, especially at 11y/o and you'll see this bone head kid was gulping it down like cool-aid.

Hence my Darwin comment. This kid would've been killing someone in a DUI in a few more years.