"Am I My Brother's Keeper?"

What causes 5 lovely young women to sneak out in the middle of the night and go skinny dipping in the scummy water of an abandoned pool? Why would they do such a thing? Yes, there were boys involved, and it was a good thing, or one of our girls would not have made it over the top of the pool fence on which she became stuck. Why would a girl who had approval to go to a conference in Peru risk such a thing? Yes, she lost the privilege of a lifetime experience for an hour of childish behavior, but she knew that it was possible that she would lose her trip before she snuck out. Maybe she did not feel that she was worthy of such a fantastic experience or she was scared of moving out into the darkness. Who knows what teen age girls are thinking? Or if they even do think before they act. It is sad that these little girls do not get to be little girls but their lives are such that they must learn to be responsible for themselves and each other in order to survive. If one of the more responsible girls had refused to go and had told the others not to go then some of them may have stayed home and been safe and not in trouble. The risk of someone being hurt and the home being sued or losing its accreditation and closing down, (which would force all of the children here to find another place to live) that is a real concern but not at 2:30 am when you are 15 or 16 years old and your buddies want you to sneak out with them. Are they their brother's (sister's) keeper? You bet they should be. What will the home say when another sneaky girl wants to travel to Japan next summer? The girls who really want to succeed now will have to accomplish all sorts of good acts all winter in order to regain their special previleges. One of those acts will be to teach themselves and others how to look out for their sisters by saying, "I am not going, you should not be going and don't ask me again because I will not ever go." Then they will truly be their brothers (sister's) keeper.