In the News

News Sun, February 20, 2007

Parents who feel that allowing teens to drink in their home is preferable to chancing that they will party elsewhere may soon have incentive to reexamine that view.

Legislators, law enforcement officials and community groups are rallying behind legislation that could result in felony charges against parents who knowingly allow minors to drink in their homes.

Senate Bill 158, which supporters expect to be passed by the Legislature during this session, would allow Class 4 felony charges against parents if allowing drinking in their home results in bodily harm.

"This new legislation is not designed to put unknowing and unwitting parents in jail," said state Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, at a news conference Monday in Waukegan.

Garrett, a sponsor of the bill, said it is designed to heighten awareness that teen drinking leads to serious problems including alcohol poisoning, sexual assault and fatal crashes and should not be condoned inside or outside of the home.

"Teen drinking is not a rite of passage or a part of growing up," Garrett said. "The risks are too high. We need parents to reject the status quo."

The high-profile traffic deaths of two 18-year-olds following a drinking party in Deerfield was a factor in authorizing the legislation. A Deerfield couple faces several misdemeanor charges for allegedly allowing teens to drink at an Oct. 13 party at their home.

"Deerfield was the straw that broke the camel's back, but this is not just a local issue," Garrett said.

Dan Collins, an Ingleside resident and MADD representative whose 33-year-old brother was killed by a drunken driver, said groups such as MADD fully support the proposed measure.

"Adults must be held more responsible," Collins said. "We have to change the attitude that parents think they are doing the right thing by allowing drinking in the house."

"This is really aimed at people who should be the adults in this situation," said state Rep. Karen May, D-Highland Park. "This is the message to parents -- wake up and smell the alcohol."

Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller said he believes allowing teens to drink at home leads to "that socialization that it is OK to have parties and get drunk."

"I like to think that I am speaking for those who no longer can speak for themselves," Keller said. "We need to stop teens from drinking and keep them out of my office."

The Lake County Chiefs of Police Association, the substance abuse prevention agency Nicasa and several communities have already gone on record in support of the legislative proposal.

"Our hope is that teens do not find a place to buy alcohol and do not have a place for underage alcohol parties," said former Round Lake Police Chief Bruce Johnson, now chief operating officer for Nicasa. "It's just not OK to have underage drinking."

Round Lake High School senior Isaiah Gardner, who attended Monday's press conference as a shadowing student with The News-Sun, said parties in which parents allow drinking are not uncommon.

"I've known of tons of parties like that," he said, adding that often in such cases, the parents act more like friends than parents.

"It's not like a parent and child relationship. It's weird," he said.

Gardner said he felt some parents will take notice if the proposed legislation becomes law.

"I think it could change the views of some parents," he said. "But there are always some who are going to do whatever they want."