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ing and other security efforts seem sensible and doable. The sentinel program aims to solve the potential for violence with further threats of violence, and that doesn't seem to be a good or reasonable lesson at schools.
• ___
• Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, Jan. 31, 2013
• Rush promo went too far
• Sometimes you can take a good idea one step too far, and it becomes a bad idea.
• When the Rapid City Rush hockey club held a college night promotion for the Jan. 18 game against the Missouri Mavericks, the club offered college students two tickets for the price of one seat. Good idea.
• During intermission, a two-person team of students from South Dakota School of Mines & Technology was pitted against a team from Black Hills State University in a relay event called the "College Olympics." Good idea.
• During the relay that included running on the ice, riding on a cooler and spinning around a hockey stick, the male students chugged four beers. Bad idea.
• And not because both of the students vomited on the ice.
• It was a bad idea because it sends the wrong message about responsible consumption of alcohol and it was at a public venue.
• Anyone who has attended college is familiar with drinking games. Usually, these take place at a private residence or business where alcohol is served. Holding a drinking game at a public venue like the Rushmore Plaza Ice Arena in front of spectators is a bad idea. Those in attendance at the game, which included children, were there to see a hockey game, not a contest that included drinking alcohol.
• Binge drinking is defined as consuming five drinks in a short period of time. Drinking four beers during the short period of time the Rush intermission contest took place is very close to the definition of binge drinking, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "the most common pattern of excessive alcohol use in the United States." Binge drinking by students also has been called the most serious problem on many college campuses.
• The Rush took the college night promotion one step too far.
• Rush General Manager Tim Hill apologized for the promotion gone awry and said it would not happen again. "It was meant to be fun, but it went completely wrong," said Hill. "I apologize on behalf the organization. Obviously it was in poor taste. The intermission game was not appropriate, and it's just something we will never do again."
• The Rush should be praised for issuing an apology. Hockey fans want to see a

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