The Martha's Vineyard Times
Underage parties put teens, hosts, at risk
By Steve Myrick
Published: August 7, 2008
On an Island where working hard and playing hard is a virtual creed, where local teenagers often work side by side with college kids on summer break, and where small town police departments deal with a population that swells ten-fold in the summer, underage drinking parties are a serious problem, according to law enforcement officers and health specialists who deal with the issue here on Martha's Vineyard.
"With the onset of cell phones," said West Tisbury police chief Beth Toomey, "a party can happen in 15 minutes."
While the world of instant communications poses new problems for police, they are also battling an old attitude: parents who believe underage drinking is a "rite of passage," and resent a middle-of-the-night call from a police officer enforcing laws their children have broken. Anecdotal evidence indicates that in some cases, parents are supplying alcohol, or supervising underage drinking parties in their homes, in the belief that it is a safe alternative. Though the lack of reliable statistics makes it impossible to gauge the scope of this phenomenon, some believe it contributes to higher than normal rates of underage drinking here on the Island.
"Time and time again we hear from parents, and people in the community, that this is what is going on," said Theresa Manning, youth task force coordinator for the Dukes County health council. "People think it's the responsible thing to be doing, to oversee this activity, when in fact, it's very much not." The task force is currently surveying Island parents to gather more information about the scope of the issue, and their attitudes toward underage drinking.
Chief Toomey points out that there are issues beyond public safety to be considered. She was disappointed at the attendance for a recent parent forum she organized, to explain the developmental health risks associated with underage drinking.
"It's a whole chemistry lesson, never mind a psychology lesson," said chief Toomey. "It takes 20 years of moderate to heavy drinking for problems to start showing up in an adult. The same kind of drinking in a teenager, it can be less than four years."
According to research compiled by the American Medical Association, brain damage from alcohol abuse to people under the age of 20 can be long-term and irreversible.
"Short-term or moderate drinking impairs learning and memory far more in youth than adults. Adolescents need only drink half as much to suffer the same negative effects," according to the report.
Sticker shock: a jolt of prevention
By Steve Myrick
Next week, the Dukes County Health Council's youth task force and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) will launch a "sticker shock" campaign at Vineyard package stores.
Volunteers and store employees will put bright orange stickers on bags and cases of beer to encourage adults to "think twice," about buying alcohol for minors. The stickers outline the possible criminal penalties for violating the state law, a $2,000 fine, one-year jail term, or suspension of a driving license for six months.
"The sticker shock campaign is really geared toward the 21 and up age group who may not realize what they're doing is wrong," said youth task force coordinator Theresa Manning. "It may be genuine. They don't realize how wrong it is."
Jim's, Our Market, Your Market, Tony's Market and Al's Package Store are the five Vineyard package stores participating in the campaign.
Some of the stores will also place large signs identical to the stickers in windows or at checkout counters.
Party policing
Breaking up an underage drinking party is a daunting task for a couple of officers working a midnight shift. Officers sometimes find 75 or 100 kids at a party.
"Obviously it's impossible to take enforcement action against everybody there," said Oak Bluffs police lieutenant Tim Williamson. "They're kind of outnumbered. We're just doing our best to make sure people we come in contact with haven't been drinking. We always look for the host of the party."
"That's a challenge in any place where there's a small police department," said chief Toomey, of West Tisbury. "They (officers) usually end up grabbing the kids that need the most help. If they can be arrested, they will be arrested. If kids possess alcohol, they will be arrested."
Island police departments leave officers a wide range of options in dealing with underage drinking situations. An arrest is not always the goal.
"We have guidelines where the preferred response is never an arrest," said Lieutenant Williamson "It's always a lesser action, whether we call their parents, or summons them to juvenile court. The officers have a great deal of discretion, based on a person's cooperativeness, how impaired they are. We will always call their parents. When they're underage and alcohol is involved, we try to get the parents involved."
The reaction to a call from police varies widely. Chief Toomey says she finds the reaction split about 50-50 among the parents she notifies.
"Some families are receptive to it, others yell at me," said chief Toomey. "If my 16-year-old were at a party, or had been drinking, I would want all this information to make decisions about how I'm going to parent. Without that information the parent doesn't know what to stay on top of."
Lieutenant Williamson finds a larger percentage of parents relieved to get a call from the police.
"Usually they're happy with us, they're not so happy with the child," said lieutenant Williamson. "We get a pretty positive response, they're happy that we've called them and let them mete out the punishment, instead of the police or the courts."
Of course, police would much rather head off a party than deal with the consequences once it has begun. It's more difficult, with mobile phone calls and text messaging, but large parties are hard to keep secret.
"There are some kids that get away with planning them," said chief Toomey. "They get a reputation, but that doesn't last long."
Alcohol level
A recent survey of local high school students showed that 55 percent used alcohol, significantly higher than 48 percent of all Massachusetts high school students who reported using alcohol, and 43 percent of high school students nationwide. Of the Island students studied, the rate of high-risk drinking among high school students was reported at 39 percent, also significantly higher than students in the state and across the country.
For the purpose of the study, high-risk drinking was defined as five or more drinks in a row within a couple of hours, at least once in the month before the survey was taken.
The same survey, commissioned by the Dukes County health council, illuminated the way local teenagers get alcohol.
"Social access is the main way," said Ms. Manning, youth task force coordinator. "It's through friends, it's through their own homes. It's not through kids falsely identifying their age."
The isolated geography of an Island community, combined with summer tourist economy, may provide more than the usual temptations for Vineyard teenagers. In summer jobs, local teens often work shoulder to shoulder with 20-something college students who can legally buy alcohol.
"That's a problem," said Ms. Manning. "A bunch of kids from a restaurant or a store might get together for a party. Kids on the Vineyard might have a little more access."
Liquor and liability
Under the state law known as the "social host" law, criminal penalties for allowing a minor to drink at your home include a fine of up to $2,000, a jail term of up to one year, or both. Those penalties were increased substantially after a 1996 accident that left a Marshfield teenager dead. According to various newspaper accounts, 18-year old Greg Smith died in a car crash after drinking at a graduation party supervised by a friend's parents. At trial, Cohasset businessman John Lennon, who hosted the party, was acquitted of providing alcohol to a minor. At the time, prosecutors had to prove that the host directly supplied or served the alcohol. In 2000, spurred by Mr. Smith's death, legislators changed the law to hold a host responsible even if they did not directly supply the drinks.
Cape and Island assistant district attorney Laura Marshard has seen only a couple of cases brought under the social host statute here on the Vineyard.
As attitudes about drunk driving have changed, more civil cases are being tried against adults who host parties for underage drinkers.
In a civil trial, the plaintiff must prove the host was negligent. That often hinges on whether the host had "control" over the alcohol. A cooler of beer left where teens can serve themselves can make it difficult to prove that the host knew or should have known that a guest was so intoxicated that he was a danger to himself or others.
Several state agencies developed a brochure warning about the liability risk of hosting drinking parties.
"If your guest was under age 21 and you allowed him to consume alcohol, you committed a crime," the brochures states. "Violation of a criminal statute is powerful evidence that you were negligent."
Those who see the tragic consequences of parents who host underage drinking parties hope the social host liability principle is a strong deterrent. A judgment against a negligent host could range in the millions of dollars, and defending such a case is a very expensive proposition.
"People who choose to have underage drinking parties at their house because they think it's safer are naïve," said Lieutenant Williamson. "They're opening themselves up to serious liability as well as criminal sanctions. I don't think it's a very wise thing to do."