MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND (WUSA)--Montgomery County Police say it's no longer unusual to see breathalyzed teenagers blow a .25 or higher at an underage drinking party. That's more than three times the legal limit for intoxication.
Yet so many parents think bad things simply cannot happen to their good kids. Police officers know that's just not true. And for several, there are images they find hard to forget. For Cpl. Nick Augustine, of the Montgomery County Police Department, it was an underage drinking party on New Year's Eve.
"I go into a back room, I see a female passed out on a bed, in vomit, her clothes mangled. And condoms sitting around her," said Cpl. Augustine.
The teenager had been sexually assaulted. Police called the homeowners.
"We called the parents, notified them of what happened and that we need them to come and take care of their child and they said, well we can't come, we're at a New Year's Eve party," said Cpl. Augustine.
They told police they could come in a few hours, when their party was over.
"They were upset with police that we were disturbing their New Year's Eve plans for that night," he said.
"Seven out of ten teenagers feel that it's consensual to have sex with somebody who's passed out. That's not consensual sex. That's rape," Montgomery County Police Officer Bill Morrison said.
Added Cpl. Augustine, "The girl had to be transported to the hospital because she could not be left alone because she overdosed on alcohol."
"It's bad enough with the date rape drugs, but now all of a sudden, you've got people who are dosing girls to the point where hey, we want to get you to the point where you're about to pass out, or pass out, and that way we're all going to have sex with you. You don't even know who's having sex with you," said Officer Morrison.
We asked if that amounts to gang rape.
"Yes, that's it," he Morrison.
Montgomery County Police are consistently seeing teenagers drinking more and starting younger than ever before.
"The blood alcohol concentration in the kids we're seeing now is just unbelievable. They should be dead," said Officer Morrison.
In recent months, he has personally watched as three teenage girls were each transported to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. The oldest was 16.
"It's scary and these parents have forgotten that their kids can die," he said.
"It's hard to get the attention of these parents until they actually have a police officer come to their door one morning and say that their child was killed in an alcohol related tragedy," said Cpl. Augustine.
He knows firsthand what it's like to make a death notification. What it's like to tell a parent that their child is gone, forever.
"I had one woman who, this was her second child that had been killed in a fatal collision, and it's just... She knew right when I was at the front door what I was there to say. And she didn't want to let me in the house because she knew what I was there to say," he said.
Most of these tragedies, and much of the heartache, are preventable.
Written by Andrea McCarren
9NEWS NOW & WUSA9.COM