How would you react if you came home from vacation to find that some three hundred high school kids broke into your 5,000 square foot dream home, threw a rager, and trashed the place? You probably don’t know until you’re in that situation. Ex NFL lineman Brian Holloway was in that exact situation, and his response is making as much noise as the Labor Day weekend party itself.
Like the legends they think they are, teens from practically the entire upper northeast advertised the night’s events on Twitter, and documented the whole evening. Of course, the adolescent social media world had to know of the madness that went down at the rager in some millionaire’s house. Well, that very same world has come back to bite them in the butt, as Holloway has taken to the world wide web to track down every single person who was in attendance that night, and bring them to justice.
Yet his definition of justice might be a little bit different than yours. On a website he had created, Help Me Save 300, Holloway explains that he intends to turn over all the kids’ names to the Sheriff’s department, but he also wants to help them. On the site, Holloway has listed a few of his ideas:
(1) Could it be possible to turn this moment into a movement? Where the 300 students; with a new commitment, to a bigger future actually became ambassadors to reach 3000 or maybe 30,000 other students? That would save a lot of lives.
(2) Would it be possible to have a group of parents and community members join with these students and the DARE program and MADD program to send another urgent message about the dangers of drinking, drugs, crime and violence? That would probably save lives.
(3) Suppose these students came together and created a voice of accountability and reconciliation that spread across the county with all the power and speed of social media? It’s happened before? That would definitely save lives.
(4) Suppose it was possible for the parents and students involved to determine the best consequences for what did occur? That could save the lives of their children and more. Like, why do I need to press charges? They can handle this. Right? Or am I totally off my rocker, or totally soft on what did happen?
The graciousness of this man is fairly evident, who from his NFL days has undoubtedly seen his fair share of the consequences of drug and alcohol abuses. And what’s amazing about his endeavor is that he resorted to the very same devices that the kids used to broadcast their exploits.
The little ragers tweeted and announced things we’re all too familiar with:
The best part about it, these kids’ names don’t need to be blurred out! They’re already in big doo doo. And of course, they had to let everyone know what Holloway’s mirror looked like:
And they even treated us to a little recap:
Sick, dude.
Unfortunately, they’ll probably tell you that any punishment was worth the night of debauchery, but the real lesson lies in the good of heart Holloway, who saw an opportunity to help, not just punish. Kids are never going to stop with the posting and the “Yo tonight’s gonna be ill” tweets and all that jazz, but at least it’s nice to know that there are people out there who don’t want to just put them through a wall when they do stupid things.
Check out Mail Online for the full story and more pictures.
About Ronald Haraka