Tradition
The Safe and Sober Grad Night party at an off-site location has been a Drake tradition for 22 years. The idea is to have a safe, supervised environment (parents of juniors chaperone & work the kitchen) with varied activities where the grads can mingle, have refreshments & celebrate the close of their Drake years. Most seniors save year-book signing for this evening. The kids will have the run of the Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael: pool, dancing, airbrush tattoo artists, magician, hypnotist & much more.
According to the 2007 California Healthy Kids Survey, the Tam High
School District has one of the highest rates of underage binge drinking
in Marin County, and Marin County has binge drinking rates above state
and national averages. Parents play a vital role in replacing
pro-alcohol messages with clear messages urging young people to make
healthy decisions.
STATISTICS from the M.A.D.D. website:
--underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined
--only 31% of parents of 15-16 year-olds believe their child had a drink in the past year, compared to the 60% of teens in that age group who reported drinking
--adolescents drink less frequently than adults, but when they do drink, they drink more heavily than adults...they drink on average about five drinks per occasion
--underage drinking is a leading contributor to death from injuries, which are the main cause of death for people under age 21.
--annually, about 5000 people under age 21 die from alcohol-related injuries - about 1900 (38%) involve motor vehicle crashes.
Graduation Day general timeline:
5:00pm Drake's graduation ceremonies (baseball field)
6:00pm Light refreshments in student center - everyone welcome
6:30pm Families & friends have their own dinners
9:00pm Grads return to the Drake parking lot to board buses
9:30pm - 3:00am Safe and Sober Grad Night Party
3:30am Buses return grads to Drake parking lot