High School Students Make Underage Drinking Message Stick

Local high school students tagged alcoholic beverages at retail businesses with stickers Wednesday in an effort to increase awareness about the implications of underage drinking, and why adults should not permit or enable the illegal and unhealthy activity.

Project Sticker Shock, a program developed by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, and sponsored locally by Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation, included posting reminders at 47 area retailers that it is illegal to provide alcohol to anyone under 21, according to a press release. More than 90 teen volunteers from District 207, which serves part of Morton Grove, participated in the program, and gathered for a reception to celebrate their work at Des Plaines Public Library late afternoon.

Margaret Polozchak, director of Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation, said Project Sticker Shock targeted adults because underage drinking was an adult problem.

“The reason why it’s an adult problem is because whenever there is underage drinking there must be an adult either providing, selling or simply looking away,” Polozchak said.

The students were led in 20 groups by adult chaperones to the participating retail locations, and everyone involved, with the exception of three Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation employees, was a volunteer.

Des Plaines Police Chief Jim Prandini was one of several community leaders to present students with participation certificates at the reception, and he chaperoned one of the groups. Prandini said Project Sticker Shock was one part of a year-round effort by the police department to decrease underage drinking.

“The ultimate goal is to keep our community safe, and keep our kids safe,” Prandini said. “We don’t want kids drinking and driving. Bad things happen when kids who are underage consume alcohol. Their vision of right versus wrong is not as clear-cut as it should be.”

Last summer the Des Plaines Police Department conducted a sting operation at all of the businesses with liquor licenses, and found 25 percent broke the law by selling alcohol to an individual without proper identification, Prandini said. Last year was the first time police targeted every business in one summer, and the operation will be conducted this year too, he said.

Eddie Serrano, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School in Niles, visited three stores with his group. Serrano said he hoped adults would be more careful checking customers’ identifications to help keep alcohol out of the hands of underage drinkers.

“I think you should educate the kids to a point, but I think when it comes down to it, [the kids are] going to make those decisions on their own,” Serrano said. “So it should be the adults that are the best educated, so they won’t be selling to these young children and teens.”

Niles Police Chief Dean Strzelecki, who accompanied students to Cardinal Warehouse Wine and Liquor, said he believes the stickers work as a deterrent. While there are some people who will ignore them, and others who would never buy alcohol for underage kids in the first place, the police chief said the stickers can influence the behavior of people who fall between those extremes.

Kristina Davila, a junior at York Community High School in Elmhurst, learned about Project Sticker Shock from a friend whose father is a Park Ridge police officer. Both she and Serrano said it was easy for teenagers to acquire alcohol if they wanted it, from an older sibling, with fake IDs and even from parents that rationalize it by thinking it’s OK as long as it was consumed in their homes, as opposed to somewhere they don’t know.

The problem with that rationalization, Davila said, is that it sends mixed messages to kids.

“That thought process shows that if you’re going to do something illegal it’s OK as long as you do it in my house,” Davila said. “So then if they take it with drinking then they can take it with drugs and everything else.”

Kelley Schiller, a member of Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation’s Youth Initiative Committee and an employee of OMNI Youth Services in Buffalo Grove, said national statistics and local surveys show kids believe and trust what their parents say the most, but that parents don't believe this is true.

“[The kids] may not portray that, but that’s what they’re saying,” Schiller said. “So really getting the parents to understand that by saying the no use message and having those strong boundaries, those kids are listening. They might fight back a little bit, but they’re listening, and they really do listen to what their parents say.”