Mother to Share Alcohol Poisoning Tragedy at Hingham High

Hingham High School Principal Paula Girouard McCann shares the following information with the community:

Risky behavior by teenagers is a concern for the whole community.  In an effort to continue to promote a positive school climate and raise awareness of this risky behavior, Hingham High invites you to Shelby’s Rules: An Alcohol Poisoning Tragedy on September 19 at 7 p.m.

In 2008, California mother Debbie Allen lost her seventeen-year-old daughter Shelby to alcohol poisoning.  

On the first night of Christmas break, Shelby and her friends began drinking at a friend’s house.  When Shelby passed out, her friends left her semiconscious propped up over a toilet.  

When she was found the next morning, she could not be revived.  Because of this devastating tragedy, Mrs. Allen created the educational foundation Shelby’s Rules to inform students and parents of the little known danger of death caused by alcohol poisoning.  She travels the country presenting to parents and teenagers what happened to Shelby that night and how it could have been prevented.  

Most parents don’t realize that the danger of alcohol poisoning has increased over the last several years due to the popularity of drinking games and other changes in how underage drinkers are experimenting with alcohol.  In her presentation she illustrates the causes, the symptoms, the treatment, and myths.  Letting an unconscious person “sleep it off” can lead to death.  Because of her own painful experience, 

Mrs. Allen has vowed to educate teens and their parents about the dangers of alcohol poisoning.  Please join us on September 19 to hear her story. 

We are grateful to the Hingham Education Foundation for funding this program. 

Parking can be challenging at HHS.  Please help us be good neighbors by parking in legal places.  Carpooling with your neighbors would also be appreciated.  Parking is available on campus in the front lot at the Union Street entrance, at the Pleasant Street entrance of the school, and in the lot behind the school accessible from Pleasant Street.  

There is also more parking in the newly expanded far lot beyond the fields on Union Street.  Parking is allowed on one side of some of the surrounding streets.  Please note the posting on those streets.  There is NO parking on Union Street.  That includes BOTH sides of the street near the soccer fields.  There is NO parking in any of the fire lanes on campus.