Teen drinking brought back into spotlight

MAT-SU -- Alaska's long summer nights present tempting chances for Valley teens to stay out longer, party at riverbanks and otherwise pursue unsupervised activities.

Unfortunately, that freedom has drastic consequences for all too many young people. The most recent case involving a car wreck left a 17-year-old Palmer boy fighting for life at Providence Hospital's intensive care unit.

Alaska State Troopers say they respond almost nightly to complaints of parties gathered near the Schrock River Bridge and other key spots claimed by young people for bonfires and beer.

Police say they need more community help in targeting the problem, which is essentially a social one.

Since half the teens are out there with their parents' cars, Trooper Sgt. Dennis Ponder said he wonders what the parents think their teens are doing.

Then there's the issue of who supplies the alcohol for these parties. On Sept. 25, the contributing to the delinquency of a minor conviction goes from being a misdemeanor to a Class C felony for anyone found guilty of buying liquor for teens if someone is hurt as a result. Until the new law goes into effect, liquor store owners have a chance to get a system in order to avoid being stung by underage buyers. This law will have serious impact on any clerk who sells alcohol to an underage buyer.

Under House Bill 330, clerks basically would be issued felony charges if that underage buyer causes or suffers serious physical injury or death.

Yet the same charges can be launched against any adult who buy drinks for kids.

"We're talking about between 100 and 200 people gathering for big parties in out of the way places," Ponder said. "Many of them are minors and mingled among them are people that are of age who provide the alcohol."

Ponder said they are called out nightly to respond to the parties, which veer into complaints from neighbors about car vandalism, noise and trash. Those are the better nights. The worst ones involve cutting kids out of crashed vehicles and investigating assault complaints at the bedside of a hospitalized victim.

"If we send in three troopers with that many kids gathered, that's not going to solve the problem. We can write citations for minors consuming, but that's not going to solve the problem without a stronger deterrent. This is a social responsibility that goes back to the parents," Ponder said.

He also expressed doubt that HB 330, which can result in up to five years in jail, will help much. It's difficult to prove who bought what, Ponder said, and he fears it's like putting a bandage on a bleeding wound.

A 17-year-old football player at Colony High, who asked that his name not be used, said he knows about the riverside parties that get out of hand. Once in a while he goes, but not often because they have a strict no drinking and driving rule among his friends and family.

"My friends, the people I hang out with, have sports during the summer and then upcoming football. We keep busy," he said. "I probably know a few people who gather at the parties. I would say they probably just do it for fun. They want to do something out of the ordinary, do something a little crazy."

As every generation does, he and his friends classify people into groups: The party-jock type, the stoners or skaters who overlap, the preppy and the computer types.

The kids at the big summer parties are probably a mixture of the jock-party ones and the skater-stoners, the 17-year-old said, with "lifers" tossed in. Lifers are the ones who hang around after high school with nothing to do "but go to stupid little parties."

Once his older brother, now 20, was jumped by five men about 25 years old and beat up at a party. His brother has a job and isn't one of the lifers, he said.

"I wouldn't be afraid to go, but I would want my friends. I wouldn't want to be alone without knowing who would be there," he said. "I've experienced some of those type of parties where people are drunk and they start fights."

The alcohol is usually beer, and usually supplied by friends who get it from their older friends. More likely, he said, it comes from the lifers.

The Mat-Su Drug Team, like other state units, conducts sting operations on liquor stores periodically to crack down on liquor sales to underage adults. Trooper Sgt. Pat Davis, who heads up the team, said he feels like the larger problem isn't at the liquor stores but with adults who buy the alcohol. That's harder to pin down, he said.

In June, four clerks were issued summons after the unit recruited young people over 18 but under 21 to go into several Valley stores and purchase a six-pack of beer. In each of the four citations, the clerk apparently didn't add up the birthdate correctly. For one clerk, it was her first day on the job.

In each case, the clerk will go to court, face fines and most likely have to perform community service work. They also could lose their jobs, and the store can lose its liquor license if the Alcohol Beverage Control Board finds multiple violations, said William Roche, chief enforcement officer for the ABC.

In the long run, it's not the liquor stores or law agencies who can do the most good in stemming the amount of juvenile drinking, said trooper Sgt. Ponder. "It goes to the core of how parents raise their children. Nowadays, it seems like parents are almost surrendering their rights as parents. As if they have given up on trying to control them."

Troopers are often asked by neighbors in the areas where kids have their parties why they aren't doing more about the problem, Ponder said.

Because patrols keep officers busy, grant money is what usually supplies the pay for overtime hours to monitor teen parties.

Parents of teens cited for minor consuming often tell officers, "why aren't you investigating the real criminals?"

It's a catch-22, he said.

"I would like people to take the responsibility into their own hands," Ponder said. "They could ask themselves, 'what am I as a citizen or as a parent going to do about this?' We're willing to help in any way we can. Yet we have a rulebook to follow and minimal resources."