If nothing else, the contentious issue of Mariemont High School students abusing alcohol during a school-sponsored trip to Germany gives us a glimpse of something we rarely see: people fighting to take responsibility for cleaning up a mess. Unfortunately, the parties responsible for the mess - the students - are absent from the argument.

The school says it sponsored the trip, laid down the rules for students and should be in charge of disciplining those who broke the rules.

Parents say they were given the responsibility to decide if their children could drink, and it should be their prerogative to punish those who overdid it.

But where are the students? How refreshing it would be if they stepped up and volunteered to settle the matter by accepting punishment for doing what they know was wrong - ignoring their chaperone's reprimand and, in some cases, drinking excessively. Otherwise, the aftermath smacks mightily of enabling.

Minus the parents who brought suit in federal court and an airport homecoming that turned into a mob scene, the case at hand is really quite simple.

There is little dispute that the students had conversations with adults about making good choices about drinking. No one disputes that excessive drinking was out of bounds. No one disputes that some students did so. Therefore, the hard part is settled.

But if the school and families divert their attention from the issue that matters most - some kids broke the rules - to the secondary issue of cleanup, the Mariemont students lose the opportunity to learn a very big lesson.

However you look at it, they broke faith with someone. They took an opportunity that was a privilege, not a right, and turned it into an unnecessary mess for their families, their school and their community.

Is it fairly typical adolescent behavior? Admittedly, but that doesn't make it acceptable.

Trips without Mom and Dad are rites of passage of a sort. So are options to "experience Bavarian culture," which could mean just enjoying architecture. And most important, so are adult conversations where rules are jointly discussed and acceptable behaviors established.

Who cleans up this mess? In the adult world, it's the one who made it.