CdM principal showed backbone following episode

As the Daily Pilot previously reported, Corona del Mar High School canceled its homecoming dance and pep rally because of the alleged intoxication of some students at the school’s annual Battle of the Bay football game against rival Newport Harbor High on Sept.16.

CdM Principal Kathy Scott, in announcing her decision to ax the activities previously set for Oct.7, issued a stern rebuke to students regarding the use of alcohol and controlled substances. In a video message played on campus last week, she called certain students’ behavior at the game “extremely inappropriate,” as well as “totally inexcusable” and “despicable and deplorable.”

The reaction in the community was swift, with judgments on Scott’s action falling into two basic camps: On one side were those who applauded her tough stance. On the other were critics who argued that wild behavior by teenagers is just par for the course, and that all students shouldn’t be punished due to the actions of a minority.

But those who take issue with Scott’s disciplinary methods might be missing a bigger point. Her message isn’t solely — perhaps even primarily — targeted at the misbehaving kids.

The principal has also taken aim squarely at parents. And for that she deserves our respect and support.

In a memo sent to parents last week, Scott made clear her expectations regarding students acting with integrity at school events.

“However, we are struggling with a disconnect within our parent community where a pervasive culture exists that allows or tolerates their children to bend or break the law and violate district policies,” she wrote.

To be sure, today’s helicopter parents make for easy scapegoats for all manner of bad acts and societal ills, and the criticism of them often veers into hyperbole and unfair stereotyping bordering on caricature.

What’s more, CdMHS’ reputation as a center of affluent depravity — bolstered by a parade of scandals over the years involving academic cheating, prom drafts, and other shameful episodes — tends to obscure the reality that most students at the school are basically normal, reasonably well-adjusted kids raised by conscientious, level-headed parents.

Scott made sure to apologize to “all of the amazing students who chose to act appropriately on Friday night.” Even so, all of the students should consider themselves lucky that the principal didn’t go further and cancel the homecoming game as well. As it is, I think they can bear the loss of one social event without any lasting damage.

Yes, kids will be kids. They act out and push boundaries. I certainly did when I was a teenager, just as kids do today and their children will in the future.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, by the time they are seniors nearly 70% of high-school students will have tried alcohol, half will have taken an illegal drug, almost 40% will have smoked a cigarette, and more than 20% will have used a prescription drug for non-medical reasons.

“Adolescents are ‘biologically wired’ to seek new experiences and take risks, as well as to carve out their own identity,” the institute reports. “Trying drugs may fulfill all of these normal developmental drives, but in an unhealthy way that can have very serious long-term consequences.”

That’s exactly why we don’t release our young into the wild world until their brains are more fully developed and they are ready to make more mature decisions. That’s why kids have parents. They need us to check their adolescent impulses and hold them accountable when they step out of line.

When that relationship breaks down — when parents are absent, distracted, overly indulgent or obsessively protective — kids receive an implicit message that when they do something wrong or go too far astray there will be no consequences. Bad things tend to happen when adults avoid their responsibility to rein in their children’s recklessness.

And things reportedly got very bad indeed at the Battle of the Bay. According to witnesses, many students were stumbling, vomiting, shouting obscenities and throwing objects at other spectators.

Some were considered so dangerously inebriated that ambulances were called. Orange Coast College has announced that it is considering denying the use of its stadium, where the game took place, to all Newport-Mesa Unified high school teams from now on.

Let’s hope that this latest episode serves as a wake-up call for the students involved in the alleged transgressions, and as an example of what not to do for other kids who were put off by their classmates’ loutish behavior. Let it also be a sign to those parents who might more inclined to excuse or ignore their children’s screw-ups that it’s far better to confront them honestly and vigorously — just as Scott has done.

I have no doubt that Scott has encountered some pushback from students and parents alike due to her disciplinary measure. But given the backbone she’s displayed so far, I expect she’ll stand firm. And the kids will be better for it.

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PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.