Princeton Reviews Encourage Illegal and Dangerous Behavior

According to a Portland Press Herald article, the well-known Princeton Review Top Party Schools list for the 2010-2011 academic year has been released-- and this year the University of Georgia ranks in at #1. Despite increasing police force on underage drinkers since 2006, the University of Georgia is up from its #4 spot in last year’s ratings, and school officials are finding it hard to believe that they would acquire this title. The University says they take student alcohol education programs seriously, and they find it very disconcerting and surprising that their efforts aren’t presenting the results they had hoped for.

However, while many are looking at colleges to blame for underage drinking and partying, it’s surprising how little responsibility is being put on the Princeton Review itself for reporting and reinforcing the idea that the purpose of college is heavy drinking.

Why does there need to be a ranking list? Promoting where the best party schools “rage,” and where the “reefer madness” occurs, as described on Princeton’s website, is not only hurtful to the school’s reputation itself, as Georgia feels, but it is also a risky venture. Glorifying and perpetuating the idea of “party schools” as a positive thing only encourages high school kids to look for schools where drinking is heavily prevalent. College drinking puts students at risk of death, injury, assault, academic problems, and more, according to College Drinking Prevention statistics.

So, how are students or colleges truly gaining from the publication of such material? The catchy titles and popularity of the Princeton rankings actually encourage the illegal and dangerous behavior and can attract students to these colleges purely for non-academic reasons.

Creating a sense of shame associated with making it to the top party school position may further help move forward college efforts to reduce and prevent high-risk drinking, and at the same time we should always be pushing for college administrations to curb the drinking activities and tone down the party atmosphere on campuses. But maybe we should also be looking at the instiller of the problem itself—cultural expectations.

Party Patrol Kits for Cumberland County Cops

The Cumberland County Underage Drinking Enforcement Task Force held a press conference on Wednesday, May 19, 10:00 Portland Police Auditorium to announce the release of their 2010 Party Patrol Kits.

The press conference was to highlight law enforcement efforts in our communities to keep youth drug and alcohol free. The fact that representatives from every law enforcement agency throughout Cumberland County attended demonstrates their commitment to enforcing underage drinking laws.

The intention of these kits is to aid law enforcement response to the scene of an underage drinking party, and help them to investigate the source of the alcohol and who was in control of the property. The real crime is furnishing alcohol to minors or furnishing a place for minors to consume alcohol. Yes, we want youth to face age-appropriate consequences for their actions, but adults should know better and therefore are the real targets of criminal investigations.



Our message was to let parents know law enforcement is looking out for their child's best interest. Underage drinking is against the law-and for good reason. Those who begin drinking by the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop some type of alcohol use disorder in their lifetime. Those who begin before the age of 17 are twice as likely.

Furthermore, youth who believe they will not be caught by the police for drinking alcohol are 4 times as likely to drink. This points to the powerful prevention role of law enforcement.

These kits are the result of that collaboration within our own task force as well as the sharing of ideas and resources between the CCUDETF, the Androscoggin County Underage Drinking Enforcement Task Force, and the Maine Office of Substance Abuse. Credit for the investigative checklist goes to the Androscoggin Task Force. Maryann Harakall of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse researched and compiled the list of items for the party patrol kits.

For copies of the investigative booklet, contact Jo Morrissey.

CCUDETF supplied the following items in the kits:

• PBT's (breathalyzers)
• White boards & markers
• Cameras
• Underage Party Investigation Booklets with investigative questions and techniques to ensure the smooth and safe response at the scene.
• Flashlights
• Binoculars
• Extra batteries for the PBT, camera, and flashlight

Additional recommended items to be supplied by each department include:

• Drug detection kit
• Bullhorn
• Flex cuffs/handcuffs
• Latex gloves
• Miranda warning cards
• Processing forms (juvenile & adult)
• Citations
• Evidence forms
• Clipboards
• Transparency covers
• Tape recorder
• Extra tapes
• Pencils
• Highlighters
• Black pens
• Sharpies
• Water bottles
• Energy bars

Present at the conference were:
CCUDETF Chair, Jo Morrissey
Officer Donald McCormick, Bridgton
Chief Neil Williams, Cape Elizabeth
Chief Joseph Charron, & Lieutenant Milton Calder, Cumberland PD
Chief Deputy Kevin Joyce CCSO
Chief Edward Tolan, Falmouth PD
Chief Gerald Schofield & Officer Mike McMannus, Freeport
Chief Ronald Shepard, Gorham
Asst. Chief Michael Sauschuck, Sargent Charles Libby, and Officer
Ray Ruby, Portland
Chief Robert Moulton, Scarborough
Chief Edward Googins, Officers Robert Scarpelli, South Portland
Lieutenant Nugent, Westbrook
Chief Richard Lewsen and Sargent William Andrews, Windham
Lieutenant Dean Perry, Yarmouth

Additional speakers included Asst. Chief Sauschuck, Portland; Chief Googins, South Portland; Lt. Nugent Westbrook; Chief Deputy Kevin Joyce CCSO; Chief Lewsen, Windham.

We got some fantastic coverage from Portland Daily Sun, Wednesday, May 19, page 3, Channel 8, Channel 6, Channel 13/Fox 23, and Portland Press Herald.

The CCUDETF is convened by 21 Reasons with funding from the Maine Office of Substance Abuse that is contracted to us by the Healthy Maine Partnerships. The Task Force is made up of every law enforcement agency within Cumberland County in order to help facilitate cooperation around enforcing underage drinking laws.

Teens Take Risks: Ideas for Keeping Kids Safe

NPR had an excellent story this week on the teenage tendency to take risks. As they point out, teens “engage in risk-taking behaviors to find out who they are, not to rebel or get back at the parent.”

Given this reality, a parent’s job is to help teens take “safe” risks so that they’re not tempted to engage in unhealthy behavior that can have lifelong consequences—like drinking, drugs, or unsafe sexual activity. From the piece:

What are some examples of healthy risk-taking activities?
Sports and developing artistic and creative abilities -- be it through art or theater -- are all activities that involve healthy levels of risk-taking. Teens can engage in volunteer activities, and even Internet activities. It can be as simple -- and as scary -- as getting up on stage, or asking somebody out, says Steinberg. All these behaviors may satisfy a teen's need to push boundaries, but are usually in an environment where there's very little harm that could result.

The article also recognizes that parents—often unintentionally—role model behavior for their kids.

Adults have patterns of risk-taking, too -- think about what they are, and model good behavior. …Steinberg agrees. "Teens who drink a lot often come from households where their parents drink a lot. Teens model their parents. Even though parents think their teens ignore them, they watch them."

What are some other kinds of healthy risk-taking behaviors that we can encourage in teens? What are some ways that you have changed your behavior to model healthy actions for a young person in your life? Share your ideas in the comments section.

Canadian drinking

Often in our work to prevent underage drinking, we hear the argument that countries with a lower minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) have fewer problems with alcohol. And since Canada is our nearest neighbor—and the Canadian MLDA is 19 in most provinces (18 in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec)—we thought we’d share recent research results about teen drinking in Canada—and compare them with stats from Portland, Maine.

	Manitoba 2009	Portland 2008
% of 9th graders who drank in the past month	39%	32%
% of 12th graders who drank in the past month	69%	52%
% of 9th graders who binge drank recently	19% (within 30 days)	18% (within 2 weeks)
% of 12th graders who binge drank recently	51% (within 30 days)	31% (within 2 weeks)

These statistics demonstrate that a lower drinking age doesn’t improve alcohol-related problems for youth—in fact it increases the likelihood that younger teens will drink and drink more heavily.

The Manitoban government is addressing these issues “by boosting fines, cranking up public-awareness campaigns and convening a summit on the issue. [They] also vowed [March 4] to beef up enforcement of laws preventing the sale of tobacco to minors, while boosting fines for offending clerks and retailers”(source)—exactly the kind of environmental prevention efforts** that can help lower those rates.

**”Prevention aimed at the environment is based on the community systems perspective that views a community as a set of persons engaged in shared social, cultural, political, and economic processes.” [http://wch.uhs.wisc.edu/docs/SIG/fisher-EnvironmentalPreventionStrategies.pdf] Environmental prevention basically looks to change the context that youth live in to support their healthy choices.

Prom Season Prevention

WMTW Channel 8 reports on prom-season underage drinking prevention efforts in Portland: