Student Union
Have Teen Parties Changed Much Since 1982?
Drinking and partying in high school have not changed much since 1982, the year Brett Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when they were both teenagers.
Kavanaugh, who has denied the accusation, is now a Supreme Court nominee.
But the allegation has raised questions about the prevalence, the morality and the legality of risky behaviors by young people. Has the dynamic of drinking and sexual assault among high schoolers changed much over the years?
"[The parties are] usually at one of the kid's houses, and the parents aren't there," said Alayah McIntosh, who graduated in May 2018 from Norfolk Academy in Virginia.
"Usually, there will be kids hanging out inside the house, all throughout the house. Sometimes, there are hookups going on in different rooms in the house," McIntosh said.
Experts say numbers show those behaviors have declined, but only slightly. Underage drinking by 12- to 20-year-olds gradually declined between 1993 and 2013, according to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health.
Statistics about sexual violence are less clear. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) says sexual violence has fallen by half in the past 20 years. However, a study by the National Institute of Justice suggests that reporting rape to police when it occurs has become more common in recent decades.
Another risk for girls and young women is being drugged into sexual submission. Drinks can be "spiked," usually with hard alcohol, or can be laced with a sedative called Rohypnol, also known as "roofies."
McIntosh described a friend being drugged, or roofied, against her will at a house party.
"She thought she was watching her drink the whole night, but she ended up getting roofied. We never found out who did it. She wasn't drinking heavily at all. It was like, her second drink. She thought she was OK, but then she started stumbling around, and she ended up passing out," McIntosh said.
"High school party culture is sort of like college party culture — still a ton of drinking," said Nate Tinbite, who attends John F. Kennedy High School in Glenmont, Maryland, and is the president of the Montgomery County Student Government.
Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that she feared Kavanaugh was "going to accidentally kill" her during the alleged incident in 1982. Her testimony has led more girls and women to come forward with their own stories.
Ananya Tadikonda, a student representative on the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland, said the party culture and male behavior described by Ford is not more prevalent in private schools than it is in public.
"Assault culture is so pervasive," Tadikonda told VOA. It would surprise her, she said, if more girls came forward to report their assault.
"Especially if it's a young girl that's my age. Because honestly, it took this many years for Dr. Ford to come forward, and that's because there's such a societal condemnation and victim-blaming culture that exists," she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, underage drinkers (aged 12 to 20) account for 11 percent of all alcohol consumption in the United States.
"I know that a lot of kids in my year drank," said Isabel Cabezas, an alumna of Holton Arms (Ford's alma mater). Cabezas chose not to drink alcohol until college, but she said many of her friends drank, and she was often left out for refusing to participate.
"I can recall one incident where I was not invited to a party after a dance because I did not want to drink," she said.
The memory of the drinking culture at her school contributed to her believing Ford's testimony, which moved her so much that she spent a day at the U.S. Capitol with other protesters. Counterdemonstrators were also there, supporting Kavanaugh.
"All of her claims are so credible," Cabezas said of Ford. "So, I wanted to go support her because I think that it definitely is seen as a last-minute political move. But when you take a step back and consider that she started writing this letter to her congressperson before it was announced that Brett Kavanaugh was the nominee, I don't think that it's a political last-moment movement at all."
See all News Updates of the Day
- By VOA News
Michigan State international students get their own space
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, is setting aside a space in the International Center for international students.
Nidal Dajani, vice president of the school's International Student Association, said that the club plans to use the space to host events and hopes to collaborate with other student groups.
- By Dylan Ebs
International students find community during Pride Month
For LGBTQ+ international students, Pride Month, observed in June, is a unique time to reflect.
They hold on to multiple identities — both their LGBTQ+ identity and their cultural background — but coming to terms with them is not always easy.
For graduate student David Zhou, these identities can feel conflicting as transgender rights in China remain a controversial issue and spaces for LGBTQ people close. Zhou, 25, is transgender and pursuing an education in the STEM field at an urban university in the Midwestern United States.
VOA is using a pseudonym for Zhou’s first name and is not naming his university to protect his identity due to safety concerns back home in China. Zhou is not open about his transgender identity to his family.
During Pride Month, Zhou said he attended multiple LGBTQ+ events in his community and is surrounded by a supportive group of LGBTQ+ students who can relate to his experiences. But he’s not open about his identity to everyone on campus and said he doesn’t disclose his preferred pronouns to everyone to avoid transphobic comments.
“I feel like I have to make some judgments of the character of that person to see if they’re a good person to disclose [my identity] to,” Zhou said.
Zhou’s Pride Month celebrations included attending local markets with LGBTQ+ vendors and hanging out with his LGBTQ+ friends.
“They normalized being trans and for a long time I feel like trans identity is, should I say a vulnerability, brings me fear and worrying about discrimination, but having those events are helpful because it allowed me to see that queer people could just [live] openly,” he said.
At social events where few international students are present, Zhou said it can be tough to fit in.
“There's a lot of times like when they were talking about things I kind of, don't really understand, mostly because I kind of lack some background experience or knowledge,” he said.
Zhou said he is not aware of specific groups for LGBTQ+ international students at his university, but said international students are more prevalent in graduate programs and therefore find representation in organizations for LGBTQ+ graduate students.
In China, transgender individuals must obtain consent from an “immediate family member,” even for adults hoping to transition, which critics say limits the autonomy of transgender individuals while supporters say the policy protects doctors from violence by upset parents.
Struby Struble, a former coordinator of the University of Missouri LGBTQ+ Resource Center, told NAFSA: Association of International Educators in 2015 that LGBTQ+ international students face a “double barrier” on campus.
“With their international student friends, they feel isolated because they’re the LGBT one,” she said. “But then among the LGBT students on campus, they feel isolated because they’re the international one.”
Nick Martin, associate director of the Q Center, Binghamton University’s LGBTQ+ student support office, said when international students tour the center, there’s often a sense of hesitation as they enter a type of space that may not be present in their home country.
“I compare that to a year in after they've come into the space, they've again, maybe come to some of our events, they've got more connected,” he said.
Martin said graduate students have a unique interest in the Q Center as they may use the office for research and advocacy purposes that align with their studies.
“For older students, there may be hesitancy in a different way, but I think it's more in the vein of they want to do some of the advocacy work,” he said.
Martin said he thinks about how both his office and BU’s international student office can support students who come from countries with few — if any — protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
“It's been a learning process of what those students really need, but I think I've kind of learned that a lot of students are just looking for the safe space that we offer,” Martin said.
- By VOA News
International students discuss US campus culture shock
International students at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, talked about culture shock in an article in La Voz News, the student newspaper.
"It felt like a major culture shock. Everything was so different, from academics to mannerism," said a student from Mexico.
Read the full story here.
These are the most expensive schools in the US
High tuition costs along with housing and food expenses can add up for students at U.S. colleges and universities.
MSNBC looked at the most expensive schools in the country, with one costing more than $500,000 for a bachelor’s degree. (June 2024)
Uzbekistan students admitted into top US universities
Students from Uzbekistan are among the international students admitted to top colleges and universities in recent years.
Gazata.uz profiled some of the Uzbekistan students attending Harvard, Brown, Princeton and other U.S. universities. (June 2024)
