Almost every student looks forward to Spring Break during the last few months of school. Everyone makes big plans for what they’re going to do or where they are going to go. Anyone who spent their Spring Break Turlock this year could tell you that it was a cold, windy and rainy week. For many students, such intemperate weather lead to more than just hanging out with friends. Every year during Spring Break, teen drinking and sex rates highly go up.
Every year,Panama City,Florida, a popular destination for students on break, has 500,000 students visiting. Local hotels prepare around 18,000 rooms in preparation for the massive influx of students. Similarly, inTexas’South Padre Island, 150,000 students visit each year. There, there are around 25 arrests per day on spring break. Altogether, about $80,000 in fines is collected. BetweenFloridaandTexas, $1 billion dollars is spent on spring break each year. Spring break is something students love and are willing to splurge on, with hopes of having a good time.
Binge drinking is another activity almost every student partakes in during a trip on spring break. On average, every student has 10 drinks a day. A recent survey by the National Institutes of Health said alcohol-related deaths among college students have gone up by almost 27 percent since 1998. Drinking is common among students, but binge drinking can cause major brain damage and even alcohol poisoning. The part of the human brain that controls coordination, memory, judgment, and decision making is harmed as well. Alcohol poisoning often leads to death and can happen to anyone. Most students don’t think things like that could happen to them, but the truth is, nobody is any less likely to be affected than someone else.
Sexual activity increases rapidly during Spring Break. A survey states that 74 percent of women said sexual activity was increased. 60 percent of women had friends who had unprotected sex. An ABC news article states, “Behind the glamorous façade hide some dark and potentially dire consequences”. Spring Break is glamorized by different TV shows and stories, but random sexual encounters aren’t something to emulate. The majority of casual hookups on Spring Break are unprotected and unplanned. Unprotected sex can change a teen’s entire life, especially with some anonymous stranger. Unwanted consequences could occur, such as pregnancy or STDs.
Spring break is definitely something to look forward to, when experienced responsibly. It’s a perfect time to hang out with friends, meet new people, and have fun. Students should all have memorable spring breaks, but they should be memorable in a good way. No one wants to look back on the things they regret, what they could’ve done differently, or what could’ve been prevented. Spring break can become a very serious matter. Many students are under the impression that breaks are all fun and games, but what they don’t realize is that they have their entire futures at risk.
