Keep teens safe from the dangers of underage drinking

From the Livonia Observer:

If you have a teen in your family, there's probably no more important thing you could do tonight than attend the town hall meeting on underage drinking.

It goes from 7-9 p.m. in Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive.

A panel of experts will discuss how any use of alcohol - not just binge drinking, and drinking and driving - is risky for teens.

Alcohol can affect teens' developing brains. It also is strongly correlated with violence, risky sexual behavior, poor academic performance, alcohol-related driving incidents and other harmful behaviors.

The experts - including Sgt. Mike Killingbeck of the Livonia Police Department, Bob Douville of Franklin High School and Kathy Weaver of Churchill High School - will discuss the scope of the problem among Livonia teens.

If Livonia teens are like other Michigan students - and there's no reason to believe they're not - 73 percent have drunk alcohol, 38 percent have drunk alcohol in the past month and 23 percent have had five or more drinks in a row in the past 30 days.

The Livonia Save Our Youth Task Force believes parents, police, school officials, treatment professionals and other community members must act together to help solve the problem of underage drinking. We agree.

Parents can start by attending tonight's meeting.

If they can't attend, and even if they can, here are other things they can do to protect their children from the dangers of underage drinking:

• Don't allow anyone under age 21 to consume alcohol in your home. Allowing minors to drink at home, in your presence, does not protect them from many of the dangers of underage drinking.
• Model the responsible use of alcohol. Do you sometimes drink too much or unknowingly convey the message that in order to have fun, you must have alcohol at every social function?
• Get involved in your teens' lives. Do things they enjoy with them so they naturally converse with you about what they're thinking and feeling.
• Get to know your teens' friends and their parents. Make sure their friends' parents won't allow alcohol or unsupervised get-togethers in their homes before letting your teen visit.
• Greet your teen at the door after an evening out to make sure he or she hasn't been drinking.
• Have high expectations and communicate those to your teen - frequently. Expect your teen not to drink. If you think kids will drink no matter what, they will. Parental disapproval is the greatest deterrent to alcohol and drug use. Kids really do listen to what their parents say.