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Parents invited to teens' drinking party
Educational presentation intended to show adults what often happens
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A group of teenagers will scare the pants off adults next weekend at a suburban Thousand Oaks house, chugging to the point of vomiting, sexually assaulting passed-out teen girls and making a huge mess.
Then, they'll stop acting like idiots, put away the fake booze and let adult observers survey and talk about the scene.
The educational presentation is so striking that national news-media organizations have started calling the small Ventura County anti-teen-drinking agency leader who came up with the idea: a touch of modern stand-up theater to convey to parents and others just how bad the teen drinking party scene has become.
It's called StraightUp, and it's the brainchild of Katherine Kasmir, a former stand-up comic and a mother of six, who has been trying to educate Ventura County residents about the bizarre escalation of teenage binge drinking parties.
"We're trying to help the parents understand the culture, and about how crazy and dangerous the party-house situation has become," Kasmir said.
The concept evolved from mixing her experience in comedy improv and several years of listening to teenagers talk about what they've seen.
And re-enacting what they have seen isn't pretty; hundreds of young men and women, alerted by a posting on Facebook or MySpace, "getting as drunk as they can as fast as they can," and descending on a house where the parents have left for the weekend.
The StraightUp actors will descend Friday on the home of Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Jacqui Irwin, who went to one of the ensemble's performances last month in Camarillo. She found it remarkable and invited the players over to her place.
"I was impressed with what the kids said but more impressed with the reaction of the parents," Irwin said.
"They look around at the scene and they are horrified."
Kasmir has been traveling the county's schools and teen clubs putting on panel discussions about binge drinking and teen partying, under grants to her group, Kids Arts, from the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department's Alcohol and Drug Prevention Division. The party-house concept came from those rap sessions and her studies in what she calls social change theater.
"We're not prohibitionists," she said, "and we're not trying to say alcohol is bad or comment on where the legal drinking age is."
On Friday, 90 adults will be given directions to the party house and get to watch what goes on. Other parties will be Sept. 29 in Oak Park and Oct. 8 in Simi Valley.
"We create a typical teen drinking party, one like the ones going on in every city in the county this weekend," she said. "Not just the bad kids, the good kids, too.
"We want parents to understand the culture and understand the issues at stake. Do you really want your drunken 15-year-old passed around by some 28-year-old guy who hears about the party and goes there to prey on these kids?"
Irwin said she was most impressed with the players' pièce de résistance, a room where the kids hold candles beneath their faces and say what their regrets are.
"It really gives parents a starting point to think about the dangers," she said.
Adults who wish to reserve spaces at the parties may call 647-4622 or e-mail katherine@straightupvc.com.
Posted by kasmirkathy on September 9, 2007 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you for getting the word out. The event in Simi Valley is on October 6th (not the 8th).
Posted by kasmirkathy on September 9, 2007 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The correct email address for reservations is:
katherine@straightupvc.org (rather then .com)
Posted by cowchip on September 9, 2007 at 11:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Geez, Star...get your info correct before publishing such an article! Does anyone proof this stuff before it goes out???
Posted by jmcgaw3046 on September 9, 2007 at 1:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
great idea and you guy who can't make a mistake get a job with the Star and proof what is written. You will find that mistakes get made.
Time something is done about the teen drinking party, one thing I did not hear mentioned in the description was the fact the a lot of time guns are at these parties so some one get killed.
Posted by slkrchck on September 9, 2007 at 2:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
has is really escalated that much? i'm 40 and i went to these binge parties in high school and well into my 20's. we always had adults around.. sometimes it was the parents and they participated. we thought they were cool. i have seen the guns and even had one myself. there were many fights and arrests. often groups of people (not local) wouldhear of the party and show up. if you didn't want to have sex in the bedrooms or bathrooms, you did it in the car. once a guy i knew from school offered to walk me home. i said no, but he came anyway. hekepthitting onme and i told him to quit it. he knocked me down between two houses. i got away. he left for a tour of duty the next day. somehow, that makes him honorable. i never reported it. it was usual. the one that actually finished the rape did it at my own house party. we drank all weekend. friday, the ones crashing on at the house were agressive. i asked my close friend (a guy) to stay in my room. he was like a brother. he was so drunk (and on ecstasy) that i couldn't trust him. instead his friend stayed. i was safe because we couldn't stand each other. the next night i had no protection. i was raped on my own couch in my own house at my own party. it was a risk we took having the times of our lives. people didn't report back then and they probably don't so much now. i didn't want my parents to find out these sort of people were in their home. turnsout, that guy was known for pushing himself on girls. there were plenty ofus. and now he's back in town and had the nerve to say hello at the beach the other day. pigs.........
didn't mean to rant.......but these things need to be monitored. btw........we weren't teens.
Posted by just_a_thought on September 9, 2007 at 8:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Straight Up probably puts on an informational program, but I really wonder if people actually believe parents don't know this stuff goes on during teen parties! I was a teen once myself (!) and I raised two kids who were also teens at one point (!), and I had a pretty good idea from my own experience with house parties as well as beach parties what activities take place. As the parent of a teen, needless to say, you pray a lot and hope they come through it safely.....I am not saying that you condone it or turn a blind eye. I seriously question how many parents of teens who attend drinking parties did not do the same when they were of the same age! Oh, and please don't inform me that "things are different now" with regard to drinking and drugs....that is, of course, you did not experience partying in the '60s!!
Posted by luvsDC on September 9, 2007 at 10:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
These so called "fake" parties do very little to curb teenage drinking and sex and whatever -- only to appease dimwitted adults who could care less about disciplining their teenagers.
Posted by RC on September 10, 2007 at 1:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
if kids really want to party they will do so no matter what. Yes as parents we can give them rules and boundries but I remember telling my mom I was going to football games and I was out partying and she had no clue what i was doing. Even if she dropped me off or picked me up I woudl still go and make sure I was back before she picked me up. good thing nothign bad happened to me!
Posted by voicesof805 on September 11, 2007 at 2:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh my goodness! Kids will be kids, but it is the parents responsibility to know where you kids are going. Hello, what is your excuse. There's cell phones that you can track your childrens where abouts. Call the parents of these teens who are having this party. Parents, put your foot down if you have a bad feeling. They will get over it! I am glad that my parents said NO to alot of places I wanted to go, that I knew were not the best places for me to be. I thank them for that, who knows what could of happend to me. Parents, if you have done it before....count on it, your kids are going to do it. You know already, think! Teens will come across the pressure all day at school but you have to teach them what the consequences can be and what bad choices can lead them to
Posted by danp on September 13, 2007 at 7:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is dumb
Posted by cmpvr on September 13, 2007 at 1:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm not sure I see the point in this either. Parents who don't care what their kids are up to aren't going to go to one of these things. Parents who do care might go, but I doubt they would learn anything new. Parents who care are already going to be up to date on this kind of thing.
Where it might help is in giving the kids who put on the fake party something to do. It also might help for other kids to see how stupid they look when drunk and show them the dangers of it, similar to the way they stage those fake drunk driving crashes. Not sure if that kind of thing actually works, however.
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