When you read the hedline on this EVT story out of Mesa (“Parents sue to stop suspension for drinking on China band trip”), you probably think the same thing we do:

Jesus, aren’t these conservative Mesa types all about personal responsibility and strict rules?

Their high schoolers get caught drinking on a fields trip—to China, no less—get a lenient three days os suspension… and they sue the district to protect their little ones from having to take responsibility?

Read the story and … it’s true: These grimy parental units are suing the district after their kids got a measly three-day suspension for drinking on a band trip, to China no less.

But there’s a twist: The parents do have a case on a different aspect of what turns out to be an story with a twist or two.

The kids were drinking in China, according to the suit, but the circumstances were a little … rococo:

A Chinese tour guide provided beer while spending hours in a hotel room with the teens. The suit says the tour guide took his shirt off because he was hot, then watched the students play drinking games until they were wearing nothing but boxers.

Now that’s something the kids could have experienced back home in the good old U.S. of A., and in church, to boot.

The district’s side:

The district contends the parents threatened to generate bad publicity if administrators kept the suspensions in place. The parents' suit includes other allegations of sexual conduct and a Chinese sex worker groping a boy in the hotel.

“In any event, Plantiffs' arguments are baseless and meant to do nothing more than embarrass and discredit the school and its staff in an effort to win a tactical advantage,” the suit states.