Mercer Island dad fined for son’s party might fight it
Mar 9, 2012, 3:56 AM | Updated: 10:54 am
Greg James was skiing at Snoqualmie Pass with his other children two weeks ago when he got a text from his 16-year-old son who had decided to stay home.
His son asked if he could have a few friends over to play ping-pong. James said it would be fine as long as he cleaned up. But thanks to texting and social media, word got out that Mr. James was out of town. Within a few minutes, the house was overrun with teenagers.
“He didn’t even intend on having a party,” said James. “People just started showing up.” Before his son knew it, there were 75 kids at the house.
A lot of the kids brought beer and other alcohol. James’ son tried to shut it down, but before he knew it the party was out of control.
The police were called, kids were written up for minor in possession, and James was staring at a $250 fine for providing the house where the unintended party, that he knew nothing about, went down.
“If you can give a parent a fine because their kid has a party, what’s next?” James asked. “Are you going to fine a parent because their kid gets a speeding ticket or gets caught smoking pot or some other silly thing that teenagers do? It seems to me like it’s kind of a dumb law.”
James doesn’t believe the $250 fine is much of a deterrent, especially in an affluent community like Mercer Island.
“I don’t think people are going to sit there and go ‘holy Jesus, do not have a party this weekend because I don’t want to pay $250,'” he said. “It’s kind of silly.”
James is the first parent to be fined under Mercer Island’s new ordinance. He is the test case and he said he’s not sure what he’s going to do yet.
“I think almost as a matter of principle I may well talk to an attorney and fight this thing,” he said. “Laws need to be fair. It’s pretty unfair to fine a parent for a teenager’s action if there was absolutely no indication ahead of time that the kid was going to do that.”
James said that he’s left his 16-year-old at home before and never had a problem, and he believes him when he says he didn’t intend on throwing a party.
So he’s taking this as a learning and teaching moment. James said his son isn’t going to be left alone any time soon, and he’s thrown in a little manual labor to drive home the point.
