Florida? Mexico? Canada? The

Caribbean? So many choices, so little time. As spring break planning kicks

into high gear, many families are left wondering how best to balance adolescent

freedom and safety. After all, this is not your grandfather's spring break,

nor probably even yours.

Accounts of excessive drinking,

flagrant drug use and public sex on distant playgrounds are the stuff

of modern legend, and not just among the college crowd. Younger teens

are frequent targets of spring break marketing campaigns, with more than

half of high school students reporting recently that they have seen the

ads. "Party till you literally drop, wake up at 4 p.m. and do it

all over again," promises one such pitch for student travel packages

advertised on the Internet.

Clearly, the give and take

that marks healthy transition from childhood to adulthood now centers

less on curfews and cars than on drinking, drugs and sex. Cases in point

are current family confabs about the advisability, even acceptability,

of travel to far-off places on the backs of tour operators promoting reckless,

if not illegal, alcohol use.

So what's a parent to do? Not

long ago, a 12th grader I know was making the case for a "comfort

zone" (a popular construct among youth) within which parents would

allow teens to party with impunity, as long as the drinking was done "safely."

This approach suggests an inevitability of destructive teen behavior that

renders many adults ill-prepared to help steer adolescent decision-making,

not to mention many young people victims, or at least casualties, of ill-conceived

social outings such as spring break at the beach.

Those negotiating should know

the risks:

Medical care in many resort

areas is often inadequate to respond to drinking and other substance-related

crises.

Some travel companies provide

adult chaperones, but they are not responsible for monitoring students'

alcohol or drug consumption or sexual behavior.

Many "all-inclusive"

trips to foreign destinations such as the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada

include booze cruises and all-you-can-drink parties sponsored by liquor

distributors where alcohol is provided free of charge.

The drinking age in Mexico,

Canada and much of the Caribbean is 18 or 19, and in many of these places

age limits are only modestly enforced, if at all.

American citizens are subject

to the laws of the country they are in. If a young person is arrested,

there is little, if anything, that the U.S. State Department can do to

help.

Even so, more than a few teens

are lobbying mom or dad for escape to sun, sand and whatever else they

might find. Everyone's going, right? Wrong.

A SADD/Liberty Mutual report

reveals that many high school students (27 percent) would themselves be

concerned about going on one of these trips and one-third (33 percent)

would worry about a friend's going. Increasingly, young people are finding

constructive, educational alternatives to idiotic beer blasts, wet T-shirt

contests and other disgusting displays of alcohol and drug-induced antisocial

behavior.

Such alternatives often take

the form of community service: giving something