What is it about being a teenager? Suddenly, there’s nothing more thrilling than the lack of supervision. The world is bright and beautiful and exciting – especially if there’s something just a little dangerous going on. Having a secret welds kids together like family. And, of course, nothing really bad could ever happen, right?
Over the weekend, some Lake Highlands High School students were hanging out in the junior parking lot, chatting with friends. That parking lot, near the tennis courts, has been a favorite teen gathering spot for years, generations maybe. No organizational plan needed. Just show up and someone will be there, ready for some fun.
Some of the kids decided it’d be hilarious to ride around the lot, standing on the vehicle’s running board and riding on the hood. Hey, watch this.
It wasn’t long before – and if you’re over 18 you can see this coming – one of the kids got hurt. You don’t have to be going very fast to have a serious injury when skull meets concrete.
But here’s the scariest part. Good kids, smart kids decided to fib about what happened. They’d told their parents they were elsewhere. They didn’t want to or didn’t feel they could tell the truth. They waited a while to see if their friend was okay and spent time concocting a story. Finally, they took her home and lied to her parents, who drove her to the emergency room. She had a concussion and needed 5 staples to close the head wound.
There was no alcohol or anything other than silly teenage shenanigans, but the delay and the fib could have had terrible consequences. Minutes matter when the brain is involved, and concussions are serious business. Ask Natasha Richardson. Well, ask her still-grieving family.
Unknowingly, the parents also lied to the ER personnel. Aside from the obvious need to tell an accurate story to get appropriate treatment, they could have ended up with a visit from social services. Tell me again how your kid sustained this injury sir? I’m afraid your story doesn’t check out. Have you been smacking your daughter around?
How do we help our kids understand the importance of telling the truth and ‘fessing up when they’ve made a mistake? How can we help them see that being a good friend doesn’t mean helping you avoid getting in trouble?
Actually, a concussion is an outcome worth celebrating – things could have turned out differently. And we have a couple of memorial scholarships at LHHS to prove it.
