Did you happen to catch the story out of Rocklin, California a few weeks back concerning the two teens who were arrested after using sleeping pill-laced milkshakes to drug one of the girl’s parents?

It seems the daughter of the two victims was frustrated with her parents’ strict Internet curfew – the Internet in her home was cut off nightly at 10:00 p.m. sharp.

On this particular evening, the girls arrived home with milkshake treats for the Mom and Dad. The grateful parents were appreciative of the spontaneous treat and enjoyed some of the shakes before feeling ... well, incredibly sleepy. They tossed the gritty tasting milkshakes aside and quickly found their pillows.

With Mom and Dad safely and deeply a-snooze, the girls figured they were free to surf the Web. The Mom and Dad, they must have assumed, would never be the wiser. However, the next morning the parents awoke in a state of grogginess.  Both complained of feeling “hung-over” and experienced nasty headaches.

The following morning, still reeling from their symptoms and with mounting suspicion, the parents headed to the local police station where they purchased a $5 kit that detects traces of drugs in the urine.  Ironically, these kits are most often sold to parents for testing the teens’ urine and not their own.

Well, yes, it seems those frosty concoctions had an extra ingredient: the daughter and her friend allegedly crushed some prescription sleeping pills and put them in the treats before handing them over to the unsuspecting adults.

When the parents tested positive, they immediately marched the girls to the police station where the 15- and 16-year-olds were handcuffed and placed in a juvenile detention center. Official charges have not yet been filed, and will be kept private because the girls are minors.  If the teens had been18, it is likely they would have been charged with a felony offense for “willfully mingling a pharmaceutical into food.”

I bring this case up because it caused a bit of an uproar in our house.  One member of our family, who happens to be close to the age of 15, found the parents’ actions to be excessive.

“Why,” he asked incredulously, “would any parent choose to have a child arrested?”

Call me crazy, but isn’t the more appropriate question something along the lines of: “Why would two teens deliberately crush prescription sleeping pills and intentionally mix them into yummy drinks, knowing full well that the parents would drink the drinks?”  No one – except maybe my slim sister – refuses a chocolate milkshake, right? 

“They did this,” my son explained, “because the parents’ Internet rules are way too strict.  But these kids should not have to pay for their error in judgment with something that will be on their records for the rest of their lives.” No punishment, he further explained to his obtuse mom, should be this indelible.

I must admit, I found my son’s reaction fascinating.  He is a bright lad and yet he never once considered that these kids could have seriously injured the adults – as in a Sunny von Bulow scenario or, worse, death by overdose. He never once reasoned that there are safer – but admittedly less effective – ways to negotiate a curfew extension.  He immediately became outraged over the parents’ reaction to being drugged.

Not surprisingly, I experienced a different response. Bravo Rocklin parents, I thought, for adhering to a sensible Internet curfew. And chalk one up for “consequence parenting.”

When asked why she marched the teens to the police station, the mom reportedly replied that she felt it was important to send a signal to her child, and to teens everywhere, that drugging one’s parents is not an acceptable practice.

Agreed.

The moral of the story then? 

Beware of teens proffering milkshakes.