Panel duscusses underage drinking
Margaret Eaton
Issue date: 3/29/06 Section: News
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The facts cannot be denied: 28 percent of 12- to-20-year-olds admit to drinking and 7 million binge drink by the time they are 21. Possessing a fraudulent ID is a felony, which is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Being caught while participating in a "pass back," where one gives their ID to another person, is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by the confiscation and suspension of your driver's license for as long as the city attorney's office wishes.
Last night's Town Hall meeting centered around these statistics and the consequences of the actions of underage drinkers. A seven-member panel discussed their thoughts and answered the questions of those in attendance.
Macomb City Police Officer Chris Butcher began his stint as the school resource, working with elementary and secondary schools in the Macomb district in the spring of 2005.
"In 2004, 55 percent of 12th graders admitted to binge drinking," Butcher said. "Fifty-four percent of 12th graders admitted to drinking and over 30 percent of 12th graders admitted to coming to school drunk or high." He added he and Macomb High School driver's education teacher Jeff Gorman have collaborated on a number of projects, including working with visual impairment glasses.
Butcher said he and Gorman got a lot of golf carts and visual impairment glasses to let the students see what it was like to drive under the influence of alcohol. He said when they started the students were skeptical of what the experience was going to be like.
"At the end there were a lot of sober faces," Butcher said.
"Last semester there were 107 fights in the northwest quadrant, 47 fights at bars and a total of 206 fights." He said the theory behind this is because of the trend of mixing alcohol with energy drinks.
The rest of the panel consisted of David Taylor, Macomb High School health teacher, Richard Iverson, Beu Health Center medical chief of staff, Bob Fitzgerald, Office of Public Safety director, Bridget Early, Student Government Association president, Garry Johnson, vice president of Student Services and Macomb Mayor Mick Wisslead.
Being caught while participating in a "pass back," where one gives their ID to another person, is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by the confiscation and suspension of your driver's license for as long as the city attorney's office wishes.
Last night's Town Hall meeting centered around these statistics and the consequences of the actions of underage drinkers. A seven-member panel discussed their thoughts and answered the questions of those in attendance.
Macomb City Police Officer Chris Butcher began his stint as the school resource, working with elementary and secondary schools in the Macomb district in the spring of 2005.
"In 2004, 55 percent of 12th graders admitted to binge drinking," Butcher said. "Fifty-four percent of 12th graders admitted to drinking and over 30 percent of 12th graders admitted to coming to school drunk or high." He added he and Macomb High School driver's education teacher Jeff Gorman have collaborated on a number of projects, including working with visual impairment glasses.
Butcher said he and Gorman got a lot of golf carts and visual impairment glasses to let the students see what it was like to drive under the influence of alcohol. He said when they started the students were skeptical of what the experience was going to be like.
"At the end there were a lot of sober faces," Butcher said.
"Last semester there were 107 fights in the northwest quadrant, 47 fights at bars and a total of 206 fights." He said the theory behind this is because of the trend of mixing alcohol with energy drinks.
The rest of the panel consisted of David Taylor, Macomb High School health teacher, Richard Iverson, Beu Health Center medical chief of staff, Bob Fitzgerald, Office of Public Safety director, Bridget Early, Student Government Association president, Garry Johnson, vice president of Student Services and Macomb Mayor Mick Wisslead.
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