Monday, December 05, 2005

BY SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
Copyright © 2005 Republican-American

Every time she goes to a party, 17-year-old Chelsea Cipriano worries she will be caught in the presence of alcohol.

A senior at Cheshire High School, Cipriano knows she could be thrown off the swim team and prohibited from participating in theater, student council, and other extracurricular activities if caught near people drinking.

"I'm afraid of underage drinking," she said during a Town Council sponsored youth forum Wednesday night. "I'm afraid of losing all of my activities for one night when I got drunk."

Cheshire High School's drug policy, toughened last spring, may be deterring students like Cipriano from drinking alcohol. Only a handful of underage drinking incidents have been reported this school year by Cheshire police, as opposed to more than 20 last year at this time.

But a youth forum at Cheshire Town Hall Wednesday night proved that more may be needed address the age-old problem of underage alcohol consumption.

"It gets worse at different parts of the year and then all of a sudden things get tightened up again," said Bill Fountain, the Cheshire Police Department youth officer, who participated in the panel. "I don't think there is ever really going to be any solutions to the problem."

Youth drinking rates in Connecticut are about 26 percent higher than the national average, and over the last decade, students in the state have started to drink at an earlier age than ever before, according to a study by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

Cheshire has been at the forefront of teenage alcohol prohibition, enacting a law in 1986 prohibiting teenage drinking at house parties. Since then, more than 45 other towns have followed suit, including Southington, Seymour, New Milford and Kent.

That doesn't mean teens have stopped drinking.

"There's so much rage and violence and anger and I'm not innocent, you know, but after a while it just got old," said Shane O'Reilly, 17, who attended the forum in Cheshire. "It's only going to get worse. The alcohol's never going to go away and the weed's never going to go away."

Often, however, the problem comes to light only when someone gets caught, as happened in Washington, Conn. last month when 16-year-old Andrew Bruzzi was charged with providing alcohol to minors during
a party at his parents' home. Bruzzi, who turned himself into state police Nov. 23, provided enough alcohol to a 17-year-old Sherman girl to put her in the hospital, police said.

"Tragically, it time again. 'Tis the season," said Richard Sears, Washington's first selectman. Sears said teenage parties tend to be concentrated around the holidays and in the spring.

Enforcement is difficult. Since the late 1990s, Cheshire High School administrators have had the option of preventing student participation in activities because of drug and alcohol use during their season. Now, they can be suspended at any time.

At Torrington High School, the Code of Conduct lists 10 days suspension for students caught drinking at school activities.

Elaine Bessette, interim high school principal in Torrington, said the situation there is not as flagrant as other schools where she has worked. West Hartford stopped having dances because too many students were drinking, she said. A breathalyzer test now is required at Greenwich High School for admittance to dances, which has worked well, she said.

"Kids are kids and alcohol has been an issue all the years I've been in education," Bessette said. They experiment, partly because they associate it with being older and more mature, she said. Commercials that glamorize drinking also contribute, she said.

Experts agree that sanctions don't always work.

"Even with the laws on the board, there's still a lot of ignorance, a lack of knowledge of what really the laws are," said Dave Abbott, pastor of Christ Community Church, who was on Wednesday's panel in Cheshire.

Several panelists suggested that some parents are at fault, tacitly approving drinking by taking away teenagers car keys and allowing them to drink in their homes. Other parents just don't ask where their teenagers are going, panelists said.

Two years ago, Sears and his fellow first selectmen William Stuart in Bridgewater and Barbara Henry in Roxbury sent a letter to residents in all three towns, asking for help in "addressing risky behaviors some young people are engaging in," illicit drug use and underage drinking. The two-page letter reminded parents they could be arrested or sued if a teenager attending a party in their homes was injured, sexually assaulted or suffered alcohol poisoning.

"We asked people to be aware of the realities and take some responsibility," Sears said.

Offering alternates doesn't always work, either. In Cheshire, the Department of Youth and Social Services hosts alcohol-free events every week. Cipriano and several attendees at last week's forum said that doesn't mean students arrive sober.

"They're still coming drunk," Cipriano said. "They're still driving away drunk. They're still getting drunk afterwards."

Daniel D'Ambrosio and Suzanne Risley contributed to this report.

(Available at http://www.iiaaonline.org/news_archive.php?id=471)