The caller was irate, but not for the reason you might think.

Before I tell you why, though, I want to make it clear that it was my decision to keep the caller's name and that of her daughter out of this column because I want to spare them the possibility of some sort of retaliation for speaking out.

Because this is a story people are running away from for a lot of reasons. Chief among those reasons is the idea that as long as everyone involved clams up -- a pledge of silence, if you please -- the quicker this story will disappear from media attention.

York Catholic High School refused to discuss the arrest of 23 teenagers, a handful of them students at York Catholic, allegedly for after-prom underage drinking during a party at a private residence Saturday night in southern York County.

The school finally issued a statement Wednesday in which it took a stance of neutrality on the matter. And it declined to elaborate on any disciplinary action that would be taken against students -- if any -- and would not provide a copy of the student handbook that outlines disciplinary procedures.

Officials at the school refused to answer questions. Period. The school's response, the statement said, would be one of compassion for the students.

Parents of the arrested students avoided speaking with the media, too. It was not their role to provide fodder for the press. I understand and appreciate that position. Most reasonable people might take the same stance when it comes

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to their own kids. And I don't have a problem with it.

Except that some (actually most) of these kids are 18 years of age or older. In the eyes of the law, they're adults. They knew the rules and broke them anyway. And a few of them -- the outstanding athletes, especially -- have been glorified by the press for years with one juicy wet kiss story after another following every successful performance.

And not once did student-athletes or parents decline (or run away from) what they knew would be stories casting everyone in the most positive light. As long as the media was going to say something nice, it could ask as many questions as it wanted. Otherwise, forget it.

The bottom line? Sweep the dirt under the rug, and people will eventually stop asking about it.

Human nature, I suppose.

But it's also human nature to focus a bit too closely on the relative few who break the rules, while taking little notice of the majority of students at York Catholic who attended the same prom, had invitations to the same party at which alcohol would be present, but decided to do the right thing.

And there were literally hundreds of them.

The parent caller wasted no time advising me that her senior, college-bound daughter and her friends were all invited to the same party in Lower Chanceford Township where the arrests were made. Other parties, too, in fact. But they knew alcohol would be on site. And they knew some of their classmates would be there and drinking underage.

So they declined the invitations. Instead, they stayed home after the prom was over, rented movies, ate popcorn and talked the night away.

Some kids chose to attend non-alcohol parties at the private homes of other students. Some went bowling. Some went home and went to bed so they could get up and go to work the next day.

What it comes down to is that almost every student at the prom Saturday night was tempted to do a wrong thing, tempted to break the rules, tempted to violate the student code or worse, a moral code, but did not give in to temptation. Some made bad choices, but most did not.

As we all know, there are consequences for making bad choices. And there will be consequences for the students who were arrested, if not at school and if not at home, then certainly in a court of law. Thank God, I say, that no one was hurt or killed because a student was driving while impaired or drunk.

But while all that is being sorted out, we should not lose sight of the fact that most of the after-prom choices made last Saturday night were good ones. And those kids should not get lost in the uproar of a few decisions gone bad.

Columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.