It’s Saturday night and your teen talked you in to letting them have a few friends come over. Before you know it, there are 50 kids at your house and the cops are at your door. Someone called issuing a noise complaint, but as you come downstairs to open the door you discover beer cans and alcohol bottles. Now what?
Four important things to keep in mind (and a few of these might surprise you):
1. It is lawful to serve your own child alcohol, in your own home, but only with you present.
2. However, in all other circumstances, possessing or consuming alcohol for a youth under 21 IS against the law.
3. It is unlawful for an adult to provide alcohol to anyone under 21 (except for No. 1 above), which you probably already knew.
4. In addition, since 2014, is it unlawful for an adult to even allow youth under 21 to drink alcohol in their home in Fayette County.
The ordinance described in No. 4 above is known as a Social Host Ordinance. Social Hosting is the act of adults allowing underage youth to drink alcohol on property they control.
Two local nonprofit organizations — AVPRIDE and Fayette FACTOR — have been partnering for almost four years on a statewide initiative, the Alcohol Prevention Project, bringing underage alcohol awareness to Fayette County.
This project includes studying social hosting and the effectiveness of social host ordinances. We have noted that although Fayette County passed a social host ordinance in 2014, the municipalities in our county have not yet done so, although they are currently considering that.
To help our Fayette County jurisdictions and law enforcement consider the potential impact of these ordinances, we are currently holding “Community Conversation” focus groups discussing teen home-based drinking parties, and who is responsible.
Our end conversation is to determine the merits of a unified countywide Social Host Ordinance that holds the adult in charge responsible for allowing alcohol to be consumed at the party.
The results of our focus group survey questions are being shared with a small team we have helped convene, the Social Host Ordinance Drafting Team. This team is made up of law enforcement representatives from every municipality and the county Sheriff’s Department, as well as attorneys in Fayette County, both on the prosecuting and defense sides.
After meeting with and surveying close to 100 community members so far, the results show general favor toward unified Social Host Ordinances that are in effect and similar across all jurisdictions in our county,
During these community discussions, we also asked people what they thought the appropriate penalties should be for social hosting.
For first offense, most people have leaned toward a small fine for the adult offender, up to $500, combined with alcohol and/or parenting education, with many people also suggesting community service. Only after a second or third offense was there a strong recommendation for a fine and/or jail time. After second offense, respondents leaned toward a fine between $500 and $2,000. For the third offense respondents have leaned toward a heavier fine, $2,000 or more.
We have found that neither law enforcement nor our community in general want to see parents arrested. Our community is also sensitive to parents who are caught off guard when alcohol has been snuck in by youth they do not know. However, we have found that our community wants someone to be held responsible for these underage drinking parties that are intentionally hosted by adults.
There is growing awareness in our community that underage drinking can lead to death or serious injury, bodily harm of the attendees or someone on the roadway when the teens leave the party driving drunk, sexual assault, risky sexual behavior of our teens, suffering academics, and inhibited brain development. We are finding that our community wants to find the right balance of constitutionality, accountability, and positive social norms for Fayette County.
If you would like to have us hold this fact-finding “conversation” with your group, i.e, civic club, religious class, homeowners association, or other group, contact me at fayettefactor@gmail.com.
[Becky Smith is Executive Director of Fayette FACTOR (www.fayettefactor.org). She and her husband Mark have lived in Fayette County for 18 years and have reared three grown children.]
