Editorial: Inquest findings a grim reminder

The inquest into the death of Mihinui Tamiana showed she had no alcohol in her system. Pictured is her grieving family.

It must be terrifying being the parent of a teenager.

Perhaps you could say that about being a parent, full stop. No matter what's their age, there's always the chance of your child coming to harm.

But for parents of teenagers, Coroner Wallace Bain's findings into the death of 14-year-old Mihinui Tamiana will be a grim reminder that anywhere there are young people and alcohol there is also the recipe for disaster.

It was found Mihinui had no alcohol or drugs in her system when she died. She was a popular, intelligent young woman with a bright future ahead of her.

But more than 200 others had attended the party in the Riri St warehouse that night and many of them were affected by alcohol.

Generators were being used, fuel was washing over the floor and a fire lighter was lit. The results were tragic.

Coroner Bain didn't mince his words, saying society needed to be aware of the stupidity of young people unsupervised with alcohol. He then went on to explain how teenagers' brains are developmentally different from adults. They're like "an entertainment centre that hasn't been fully hooked up". Mixing alcohol with a not-yet fully developed teenage brain was a "recipe for absolute disaster", he said.

As if kids drinking isn't enough for parents to worry about, Coroner Bain also pointed to the social media factor. Word of the party got out via social media, leading to such a large crowd in a "moderately sized warehouse". Social media's influence on this generation of teens' lives is huge, yet it didn't even exist for their parents.

No parent should be naive enough to think it couldn't have been their child. If fate had played a different hand it could have been any of hundreds of Rotorua families going through what Mihinui's has gone through the past two and a half years.

I'm not a parent ... but I have been a teenager. And I don't think it's ever going to be possible to 100 per cent protect your child from harm.

All you can do as parents, all we can do as a community, is watch over them as best we can, educate them as best we can, give them the tools to keep themselves safe, and hope.