BELLOWS FALLS — If you've made the drive along Route 5 between Westminster and Bellows Falls, or walked around downtown Bellows Falls over the past two months, you may recognize the expression “Parents Who Host Lose the Most - Don't be a Party to Teenage Drinking.”
The campaign, sponsored by the Greater Falls Prevention Coalition, encourages parents to consider the consequences of providing teens with alcohol.
This campaign promotes community awareness around social hosting and the far-reaching implications such activity can have on both parents and children. Providing alcohol to minors is illegal and can be detrimental to a child's development.
The financial and legal risks of hosting an underage party are numerous and severe. If a minor who consumes alcohol at a party breaks the law, the parent may be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. This is the case if there were a fight, property damage, or a sexual assault.
Additionally, if a minor were to cause an accident while driving under the influence, resulting in serious bodily injury or death, the adult could be imprisoned for up to five years or fined up to $10,000.
Furthermore, insurance polices have an exclusion clause that stipulates the insurer will not protect or defend a homeowner if something were to happen during a gathering where alcohol is provided.
Legal consequences only tell half the story. Allowing someone under the age of 21 to consume alcohol can disrupt brain development and cause a host of behavioral problems. Research shows that teenage consumption of alcohol can impair memory, learning, decision making, and impulse control. Additionally, underage drinking increases the likelihood of addiction as an adult. Prevention is the key to decreasing substance abuse by adults.
As parents, making decisions with our children can be one of the most challenging things we do. On the one hand, it is important to maintain an open, honest relationship with our children so that trust may blossom. On the other hand is the need to create firm boundaries that support positive, healthy decisions.
A Dear Abby letter published in October highlights this dilemma. In it, a father identifies the challenge of saying no to hosting an underage drinking party while maintaining open communication with his son. The column rightly reaffirms the father's decision to not host a party and points out the legal and liability consequences parents face if something were to happen. While there may be strain on the relationship, setting firm boundaries is necessary to supporting healthy child development.
The Greater Falls Prevention Coalition would like to thank the many businesses, organizations, schools and individuals that helped to promote this campaign.