Teen boozing reflects on parents

By Emily Richmond

Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

An increasing percentage of Nevada teenagers - more than a third - say they're getting their booze from home, and that has Kathy Bartosz worried.

As coordinator of the state's efforts to reduce underage drinking, Bartosz is bombarded with statistics, most of them grim.

Between 2003 and 2005, 150 fatal wrecks statewide involved drunk teenage drivers.

In 2005 youth traffic crashes in which alcohol was a factor cost the state $107.8 million.

And in a 2005 survey that showed the growing percentage of teens getting their liquor at home, 41 percent of students said they had drunk alcohol at least once in the prior 30 days, while one in four had engaged in binge drinking - five or more drinks in a row.

So we've got to get tougher with our kids? Not necessarily, Bartosz said.

"Holding a youth responsible for underage drinking is sort of like holding a fish responsible for dying in a polluted stream," says Bartosz, who works for the state's juvenile justice program. "We can teach kids, and encourage them to make good choices, but if they are living in an environment that doesn't support that, we are really fighting an uphill battle."

And so these days, more fingers are pointing at parents and other adults who allow kids to get their hands on alcohol.

From New Hampshire to California, cities, counties and states are crafting legislation that give police more leeway to make arrests and add civil and criminal penalties for so-called "social hosts" who enable teen drinking.

That includes parents who have long rationalized that if their children inevitably are going to experiment with alcohol, better that it occur at home than in some park or arroyo.

In a survey conducted by a Reno-based research firm, 35 percent of Clark County adults said they believed parents should be allowed to serve alcohol to minors when hosting parties in their own homes. The percentage dropped to 26 percent in Washoe County and to 24 percent for Carson and Douglas counties.

But parents can be arrested for allowing that. And the penalty may get harsher.

Under Senate Bill 7, which is scheduled to be heard Thursday by the Judiciary Committee, a person who serves, sells or furnishes alcohol to anyone under 21 years of age would be civilly liable for damage caused by the underage drinker - in addition to facing the current criminal penalties for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. (The civil liability would not apply to people licensed to serve or sell alcoholic beverages, or their employees.)

The legislation is sponsored by State Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas. She pushed a version of the bill in 2005 that died in committee. She believes this time around will be different, in part because of increased public awareness and more bipartisan support from her colleagues.

"If people make a decision to provide alcohol to underage drinkers, they must be responsible for what happens if that inebriated child causes damage in an intoxicated state," Wiener said.

In 2003, after leaving a party in a gated Seven Hills neighborhood, a 16-year-old Henderson boy crashed his vehicle into a cement and cinder-block wall. Three 15-year-old passengers were killed and a fourth was seriously injured. The driver, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, served two years in juvenile detention. A 20-year-old served a year in county jail for providing some of the alcohol consumed by the boys.

The parents of the three boys who died - Travis Dunning, Kyle Poff and Josh Parry - sued Monica Roman, whose Seven Hills home was the site of the party. Roman's 14-year-old daughter had been given permission to have a few girls spend the night. In legal depositions, Roman said she was upstairs asleep with her husband when her younger daughter woke her and said the sleepover had swelled to a crowd of teenagers drinking and milling about the back yard. Roman took no action beyond instructing her older daughter to send everyone home.

"Why didn't you ... stop and ask any of the kids who were in the back if they had been drinking to see if they were OK to leave?" Roman was asked in a deposition by attorney William McGaha, who represented the Poff and Dunning families in the civil suit.

"I don't know," Roman said.

"Should you have?" McGaha asked.

"Yes," Roman replied.

The "parental responsibility" section of the Henderson Municipal Code makes it unlawful for parents or guardians to allow their homes to be used by underage drinkers. Following the fatal crash in 2003, the city attorney declined to pursue a case against Roman, saying there wasn't enough evidence to support criminal charges. The civil suits have since been settled out of court.

McGaha said Thursday he supported Wiener's legislation.

"It's sure to cause some debate, but it's debate that's needed," McGaha said. "Parents need to know that no matter how vigilant they think they're being, the situation can end in tragedy. And they will be held responsible."