My Mother, My Bartender

Tragic stories abound. After a graduation party last year in suburban Chicago where police said celebrants were drinking, two teens left and were killed in a car crash. The parents who hosted were hit with five misdemeanors for reportedly allowing the celebration. A trial is set for July.

Police are cracking down on adults even when no one gets hurt. Two weeks ago, former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jack Trudeau was arrested on charges including contributing to the delinquency of a minor, after officers found a group of teens at his home celebrating graduation with alcohol. Trudeau, whose daughter was one of the graduating high-school seniors, denied he supplied any alcohol to the partygoers.

In any situation, adults supplying booze to kids for a party simply sends the wrong message, says Lindsey. The new emphasis on parental responsibility could serve as a wake-up call to the dangers of parents’ condoning junior's illegal boozing—5,000 deaths a year are attributed to underage drinking.

Some believe the answer to rampant underage drinking is to lower the drinking age back to 18. "Responsible parents understand that alcohol is a reality and responsible parents want to create the safest possible reality for that environment," says John McCardell Jr., who as former president of Middlebury College has seen his share of out-of-control underage drinking. "The current law makes those people lawbreakers and thereby says that impulse is illegal."

In Kelly's case, police broke up the ill-fated August 2002 birthday party after someone reported underage drinking.  When officers arrived, Kelly encouraged partygoers to gargle with vinegar to mask the scent of alcohol, said Jon Zug, Albermarle County assistant commonwealth attorney.   She had also told parents no alcohol would be served, he said.

Kelly and her former husband, George Robinson, were initially convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison, but the time later was reduced on appeal. The case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. "Parents need to be parents and not their kids' friends," Zug said. "You need to make the really difficult choices and a lot of times that means saying no."

© 2007