Wouldn’t it be too bad if high schools across the country starting canceling their proms because they are unwilling to deal with or take responsibility for intoxicated students?

A story in Friday’s Journal-World recounted some of the circumstances schools are facing. In suburban Boston, it was getting difficult to find teacher chaperones willing to deal with drunken quarrels and other unpleasant situations. In one school a student had to be rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Is it any wonder that many schools are forcing students to pass a Breathalyzer test when they come to the prom? Students may see it as an invasion of their privacy, but it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable to school officials — and probably many parents — who are trying to protect students.

They probably also are trying to protect themselves from potential liability for students who drink and, particularly, those who drink and drive. Could chaperones or schools be held responsible for allowing students who imbibed at or near the prom and later were involved in a serious traffic accident? As one student pointed out in Friday’s story, students getting into their cars “stumbling drunk” is a real problem. His suggestion is to force prom-goers to pass a Breathalyzer test as they left the event instead of when they arrived.

There are no Breathalyzers at the proms for Lawrence’s two high schools. Prom chaperones depend on their ability to detect potential problems by talking to the students to “see how they’re doing.” Free State High School Principal Joe Snyder acknowledged that alcohol consumption by prom-goers was a persistent problem, but school officials have been able to deal with it so far on a “case-by-case basis.” If an intoxicated student is detected, the parents are called to come pick him or her up, which seems like a reasonable approach — assuming the parents take the situation seriously enough and chaperones can get students to wait for their parents to drive them home.

A 2004 survey by the Greenbush Institute, reported that nearly two-thirds of Douglas County’s high school seniors said they had consumed an alcoholic beverage during the previous year. Given the connection our culture makes between alcohol and celebration, it’s not surprising that alcohol is an issue at high school proms.

We applaud the efforts of chaperones to try to keep alcohol-related problems from compromising students’ safety and fun at local high school proms, but it’s also easy to see why school officials here or anywhere could reach the point they would choose to simply cancel the event rather than accept such a responsibility.