Spring Grove incident highlights new underage drinking rules

From the Monday, June 23, 2008 edition of the Northwest Herald:

Spring Grove incident highlights new underage drinking rules
By DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com

Too bad it wasn't a Christmas party.

If the teens who pleaded guilty to underage drinking at a February barn party in Spring Grove had committed the same actions before January 2008, they would not be facing three-month driver's license suspensions.

Spring Grove police took 58 teens into custody in February after they discovered a barn party at 7119 S. Solon Road. Of the 58 teens, 22 were charged with underage drinking. At least 11 of those teens pleaded guilty to underage drinking charges.

Before 2008, only vehicle-related underage drinking offenses were reported to the Secretary of State's office - which meant those were the only offenses that resulted in driver's license suspensions.

Non-driving offenses were only reported if the underage drinker failed to complete court supervision, said Rick Winkel, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law.

But Illinois law changed in January 2008, and now every underage drinking conviction is reported to the Secretary of State's office - which means any underage drinking guilty plea or conviction results in driver's license suspensions, Winkel said.

Whether the offense is vehicle related and when the driver received their license does not matter under the new law.

"If there is any alcohol, there is a suspension for underage drivers," said Dave Druker, spokesman for the Illinois Secretary of State's office.

Druker said, however, the suspensions disappear from the teens' public driving records - the record that insurance companies access - when the suspension ends.

"That makes it easier to swallow," said Heidi Parsons of Johnsburg, 50.

But Parsons said she believed local police were too rigorous about enforcing underage drinking laws.

"It's almost like they're trying to put us back in the prohibition," she said. "There's not a lot of stuff for kids to do around here."

For Jenny Majewski, mother of a 16-year-old driver's permit holder, the law is not too much to ask.

"There's too much [underage drinking] going on here," she said. "We certainly don't need that on the streets."

Majewski grew up in Spring Grove and lives in neighboring Johnsburg.

Her 16-year-old son, Tom, did not feel as strongly.

"It depends on the circumstances," he said. If the teens had intended to drive home that night, he said he would support the suspensions.