In the News

ABC7, February 19, 2007

There is a proposal in Illinois to crack down on parents and other adults who provide teenagers with alcohol or a place to party. This follows several deaths and injuries involving underage drinking in the Chicago area over the last several years.

State lawmakers are proposing tougher penalties for adults who help teens drink. The proposal would make the offense a felony with penalties ranging from thousands of dollars in fines to prison time.

The sponsors of this legislation say it by no means is an answer to the large-scale problem of teen drinking. It is, they say, a piece to the puzzle that 32 other states already have. It focuses on the home front, and parents, and the word "knowingly."

"Teen drinking is not a right of passage. It's not a right of growing up," said State Sen. Susan Garrett, (D) 29th District.

Last fall two 18-year-old boys were killed in Deerfield when their car hit a tree. They had been drinking at the home of a friend nearby. That boy's parents were later charged with five misdemeanors for allowing underage drinking to take place.

Under the new legislation, police and prosecutors could charge parents not just with a class a misdemeanor, but with a Class 4 felony if they knowingly allow underage drinkers in their homes to consume alcohol and if that leads to someone suffering bodily harm.

"Someone in the home asleep and unaware of what's going on in the basement, that's certainly one circumstance. The intent of this is again those parents who allow and encourage that type of behavior in their homes," said Chief John Sliozis, Deerfield Police.

"Parents aren't the enemy, but for some parents, they believe that these kinds of things are acceptable, and we're saying that for that minority of parents, it's not," said Garrett.

The Illinois General Assembly previously had passed similar legislation, but it was struck down by the state Supreme Court because it was too vague. The bi-partisan sponsors of the new version believe it will pass constitutional muster.

"We have a saying in this country -- wake up and smell the coffee. Well my message to parents is "wake up and smell the alcohol. Thank you," said State Rep. Karen May, (D) Highland Park.

Critics of this kind of legislation say that merely upping the criminal sanction of adults who knowingly provide liquor in their homes to teens misses the larger issue -- that teens who are determined to drink will find the ways and means to do it -- wherever -- and the responsibility and penalty rest foremost with them.

But the deaths last fall in Deerfield and the recent spate of alcohol related car crashes involving teens have lawmakers saying they need more tools to fight the problem - and Senate bill 158 is one of them.