Dangers of Drinking
Andrew Chang
Our stance when it comes to alcohol has become increasingly lax over the years. Even though alcohol is still explicitly illegal to people under the age of 21, the difficulty of controlling its distribution has created a contemporary culture essentially condoning underage drinking. But with a flexible perspective on illegal drinking come consequences, and the recent death of South Pasadena High School senior Aydin Salek serves as a poignant reminder that our approach to underage drinking is one that could ultimately end in tragedy.
Salek, 17, wasn’t the type of student one would expect to die in an alcohol-related incident. As a writer on the SPHS school newspaper, the student liaison to the South Pasadena School Board, and a volunteer in 2008 for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Salek was clearly driven by his ambition to become a lawyer and to one day serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. “When I first heard the news, I was shocked,” commented senior Leah Wong, “because he was such an earnest and energetic leader when I met him at the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference.”
Salek, who collapsed 45 minutes after he drank an unspecified amount of alcohol at a party on Dec 11, was initially left alone by his friends. According to the South Pasadena police, his passing out may have been so “swift and subtle” that his peers did not know something was wrong until it was too late. On the way home, he was snoring—taken by his friends as a sign of normal sleeping—but soon fell unresponsive. After attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation and hospitalization, he was pronounced dead early in the morning on Sunday, Dec 13.
Aydin Salek’s tragic and untimely death is a tragedy, but more importantly an indication that the susceptibility of high school students to alcoholic consumption may be more dangerous than we think. –END QUOTE-
Andrew Chang
Our stance when it comes to alcohol has become increasingly lax over the years. Even though alcohol is still explicitly illegal to people under the age of 21, the difficulty of controlling its distribution has created a contemporary culture essentially condoning underage drinking. But with a flexible perspective on illegal drinking come consequences, and the recent death of South Pasadena High School senior Aydin Salek serves as a poignant reminder that our approach to underage drinking is one that could ultimately end in tragedy.
Salek, 17, wasn’t the type of student one would expect to die in an alcohol-related incident. As a writer on the SPHS school newspaper, the student liaison to the South Pasadena School Board, and a volunteer in 2008 for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Salek was clearly driven by his ambition to become a lawyer and to one day serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. “When I first heard the news, I was shocked,” commented senior Leah Wong, “because he was such an earnest and energetic leader when I met him at the Rotary Youth Leadership Conference.”
Salek, who collapsed 45 minutes after he drank an unspecified amount of alcohol at a party on Dec 11, was initially left alone by his friends. According to the South Pasadena police, his passing out may have been so “swift and subtle” that his peers did not know something was wrong until it was too late. On the way home, he was snoring—taken by his friends as a sign of normal sleeping—but soon fell unresponsive. After attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation and hospitalization, he was pronounced dead early in the morning on Sunday, Dec 13.
Aydin Salek’s tragic and untimely death is a tragedy, but more importantly an indication that the susceptibility of high school students to alcoholic consumption may be more dangerous than we think. –END QUOTE-