Quote:
Originally Posted by ASTalumna06
College students are young adults. They’re not kids. I stole a few pieces of candy when I was younger. I lied repeatedly. I climbed onto the roof of my elementary school when I was 16 and was almost arrested. And I learned to cut it out once I hit college. At what point do people start being held accountable for their actions?
We make excuses for college students all the time on this site, but it’s always something along the lines of, “Well, it’s recruitment, and 18-year-old girls can be very superficial..” or “Chapters sometimes don’t see the big picture when electing a president..” etc. But picking a sorority because all of the sisters are “cute” and choosing a president because he’s popular doesn’t compare to breaking and entering. A line has to be drawn.
And what about this story made it obvious that they were just being morons? Besides the awesome excuse the guys gave for breaking in..?
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We treat college students like kids, especially in the Greek system. It's the truth. The rules might be there for liability reasons, but they're also there because "kids do dumb shit". We EXPECT them to do stupid things, because otherwise the rules wouldn't be nearly so extensive (I'm referring to risk management). So do the colleges they attend. Shoot, they can't even legally drink a beer (and in my state 18 year olds can't even buy cigarettes, sign a lease, own property, etc). And if they spend a good majority of college being babysat, we can't expect them to suddenly make adult decisions at all times.
They broke in (and as someone said, likely drunk since it was in the early morning hours and only two of them...not like a big group got together and planned a panty raid or something), looked for "secrets"...there's no reason to believe they were doing anything else. If they came in with baseball bats, that would be one thing. But ruining their futures isn't a proportional response, IMO. Like I said, probation, fines, community service...and the ability to learn their lesson without ruining their lives seems fair to me.