Fairfax police chief calls large teen parties ‘universally a bad idea’ after McLean couple charged.mp4

So, I'm a parent of four kids myself. They're all a little bit older. They're out of high school, out of college. Thank God. But I remember those days very clearly. And a lot of times, parents struggle with this conundrum of, do I let my kids leave my home and go God knows where? God knows what, or do I somehow consider our home a host for those types of gatherings? So minimally, I have some level of control regarding the behavior of not only my own son or daughter, but his or her friends as well. The key to all that is not having alcohol, drugs, and other nefarious contraband present. That's easier said than done. Young people, and we were all young at one point in time, were very resourceful as teenagers. I do applaud any parent out there that's looking to create a safe environment for their children to interact with their peers. I think it's universally a bad idea to host anything at a home, whether it's single family or apartment. It's not easy being a parent, and we certainly want to make it easier for parents to be parents and help their children, their teenagers in particular, their high schoolers in particular, make good decisions. So we're not against any parent who's trying to do the right thing, even if a parent occasionally makes a wrong decision that spirals and grows and gets embellished and exaggerated and all of a sudden creates a harmful situation for the community. So I hope that answers your question. I don't know exactly, I have not yet heard the parents say anything on social media. I'm sure you said that they're on social media. We want all parents to be able to make good decisions for their kids. But parents have to be parents. Adults have to be adults. And my four kids can tell you that I routinely said to them that the word no is an answer. But how do you emphasize to the parents? Well, I think that that's intuitive for a lot of parents, but maybe not all. So maybe as a police department, as public safety, or even as a county government, We can consider some type of messaging campaign. Maybe we involve Fairfax County Public Schools and Dr. Michelle Reed just to remind parents that a good intention can result in disastrous consequences if you don't think through every aspect of your decision. And the decision to host a large party with alcohol, with students, with friends, with teenagers, and you don't know them from Adam, is universally a bad idea. Certainly, I realize by the time you realize it's a bad idea, things have probably already gotten out of control. So I think it's a matter of working with the schools, working with our own public affairs, working with our school resource officers to really maybe make a point again. And we've had this messaging in the past. You can never repeat a public safety message enough. And maybe that's something that we consider doing with greater frequency or with another. message that grabs people's attention. We're all distracted at all times in 2026. There's so many things going on in our lives, and parents, again, have to be parents. No is a complete sentence, and no is an answer. I'm not sure, but I'll look around the room if someone wants to tell me. 13.