Chuck Williams: Mistakes multiplied for younger generation

Over the weekend, I was walking out of Eagle & Phenix Lofts with my dad.

It was the first big prom night of the season, and a lot of kids were taking photos down by the river. I asked one kid what school he attended.

"Shaw, sir."

Good looking kid. Then I told him -- as I am prone to say to anyone from the mayor to the mailman -- "stay out of trouble."

He looked at me a little strange. Then he and a woman who was probably his mother laughed.

I couldn't leave well enough alone.

I then told him as he was walking away, "I wished someone had told me that when I was a senior in high school."

My dad then hit it out of the park.

"I did," he said. "You didn't listen."

The truth can sting sometimes, even when you're a 54-year-old man and your dad is pushing 80.

But times have changed, friends. It is no longer 1979, and my junior-senior prom has turned into more senior moments than I care to admit.

But I wasn't kidding when I told that young man who goes to Shaw High School to stay out of trouble. He and his classmates deal with a world that is far less forgiving than the world that launched many of us into adulthood.

Take a look at Parker Rice, the young member of the University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity who was caught on video leading a racist chant on a bus en route to a formal.

This time a year ago, he was a high school senior. Because of his actions, he's toxic. Toast. His future is very different than what he or his parents planned when they sent him to Norman.

Thanks to his reprehensible action and the viral YouTube video, we will all be able to see Parker Rice at his worst for years to come. No excuses. No explanations.

That is what the kids of today deal with -- and their parents fear. The mistakes are multiplied.

One of the most gut-wrenching things I have witnessed was the mother of a Northside High School student testifying before the sentencing of the young man who pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in the death of her daughter.

They were a boyfriend and girlfriend just having a good time. That good time turned deadly for Hannah Gilmer. For her boyfriend Clayton Qualls, it turned into nearly 10 years in prison.

I went home that night and cried for her parents -- and his.

I preach to you knowing that I have not been perfect. I was a fraternity boy -- SAE, as a matter of fact. I took a Troy University campus security car for a spin around the block one night when one of our parties got a little rowdy. I knew the officer, and it was a big joke. Today, I would be facing charges for that. Back then, it was stupid, but fun. Every single one of us on the backside of 50 has done something we would not want to see on YouTube.

I can wink and nod at someone like the young man from Shaw I encountered over the weekend. But when I say, stay out of trouble, I mean it.

Trouble today is a deeper, wider river that can swallow you whole. Kids, listen to your parents on this one.

This time, they're right.

Chuck Williams, senior reporter, chwilliams@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 5:50 PM.