Prevention Council

Providing Substance Abuse Education, Information and Referral Services

Law enforcement cracking down on underage drinking during prom, graduation season

May 21, 2012

By Michael Cignoli
The Saratogian

BALLSTON SPA — Local law enforcement officials have a message for graduating high school seniors: if their graduation celebrations include alcohol, a diploma may not be the only piece of paper they receive.

Saratoga County STOP-DWI Coordinator Robert Murphy said police will be on the lookout for, and ticketing, underage drinkers during all local graduation ceremonies and post-graduation parties.

Addressing the Saratoga County Traffic Safety Board Monday afternoon, Murphy said overtime funding for the additional police presence has been authorized through the county’s STOP-DWI program, which is funded through fines paid by convicted drunken drivers.

Murphy said additional overtime has been authorized to allow officers to combat driving while intoxicated over Memorial Day weekend.

The move comes on the heels of the program’s authorization of additional police overtime during high school prom season — which stretches into mid-June — and law enforcement agencies throughout the county stepping up their presence to deter underage drinking and drunken driving.

The Saratoga Springs Police Department reported no arrests related to Saturday night’s Saratoga Springs High School prom, city police Sgt. Andrew Prestigiacomo said. But there were some driving while intoxicated arrests over the weekend, he said.

Murphy said law enforcement agencies throughout the county relayed similar messages following proms in their areas, the bulk of which were held this past Friday and Saturday. Ballston Spa and Shenendehowa will host their senior proms next month, but Murphy said the results thus far have been encouraging.

“It was really good,” Murphy said. “All of the schools made an effort and worked together.”

Murphy is now hoping for a similar effort during next month’s graduations. Ten schools have clustered their graduations between June 21 and 23, while Mechanicville’s is slated for June 30.

Officers are not as worried about drinking at the graduation ceremonies themselves as they are about the after-parties, Murphy said.

Local teen recognized 
The Traffic Safety Board on Thursday also recognized Ballston Spa High School junior Katy Stringer, one of six winners in a statewide “Save Your Friend’s Life Over the Airwaves” contest.Stringer produced a 30-second public service announcement on the dangers of drowsy driving that will air on three local radio stations to promote safe driving among teens.Drivers ages 16 and 17 cause approximately 140 drowsy driving crashes each year, according to the state Association of Traffic Safety Boards, the contest’s sponsor.

Murphy, who said drowsy driving can be just as dangerous as driving under the influence, presented Stringer with a $200 check that Ballston Spa’s Class of 2013 can use to fund things like safe post-prom activities.

Graduation rites should never include drinking

June 19, 2011
Reader’s View
The Saratogian

Graduation season is here, and with it come graduation parties and a perennial question: Should parents help their children learn how to drink responsibly by allowing them to drink at home with supervision? According to new research, the answer is a definite no.

Many parents believe that if their kids have had no experience with alcohol before leaving home that they’ll drink to excess in college and put themselves at risk for alcohol poisoning, sexual abuse and who knows what other scary situations. But studies show this is false.

People often point to the more permissive drinking attitude in Europe as proof that allowing some underage drinking leads to less binge drinking by taking away alcohol’s “mystique.” But that’s simply not true.

The majority of European countries have a higher rate of teen drunkenness than the United States. In fact, a Dutch study on the “European drinking model,” in which kids grow up with a glass of wine around the family dinner table, has found that the more teens drink at home, the more likely they are to drink outside of the home and develop drinking problems later in life.

Twenty years ago, we didn’t know how badly teens’ brains were affected by alcohol. We now know that some of the last regions of the brain to mature are those that regulate judgment, critical thinking skills and memory. These are the areas most likely to be damaged by early alcohol use — especially heavy use.

Heavy alcohol use is common, especially among college students. Locally, 30 percent of grade 11 and 12 students at Saratoga Springs High School reported binge drinking in the past month. That’s 5 or more drinks in a row for boys, 4 or more in a row for girls.

A Penn State researcher recently found that the more parents condone underage alcohol use, the more kids drink. And conversely, when parents have a zero tolerance alcohol policy for kids, the less kids drink or binge drink in college. The study found that parents’ values and expectations still matter to kids, even when they leave home.

Study after study has shown that the best thing parents can do to prevent their children from drinking heavily at college, or from developing long-term drinking and learning and memory problems, is to promote a zero-tolerance drinking policy with their kids and to model responsible adult drinking behavior.

Heather Kisselback is executive director of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Council, which has its office in Saratoga Springs.