After the buzz... Sobering consequences to irresponsible drinking

A student prosecutor talks about one of the cases during the "Class Action" project.

When underage drinking ends up in court, the results can be far reaching.

Warsaw High School freshmen are part of a pilot program called “Class Action,” taught by preventionist Linda Tobias from the Mental Health Centers of Western Illinois.

Attorney John Hauk, formerly of Warsaw, provided feedback to Melissa Finch's freshmen health classes as they prepared their mock prosecution of a negligence case involving underage drinking. The students completed a course, “Project Alert,” in sixth and seventh grade with Tobias.

“Now they are taking what they know about the effects of alcohol one step further,” Tobias said.

“‘Class Action' teaches the students about the serious problems associated with not only underage drinking but irresponsible drinking,” Tobias said. The course offers them a chance to debate the legal intricacies of alcohol-related cases such as drinking and driving, violence, vandalism, school policies, fetal alcohol syndrome and date rape.

Tobias came to the class each Thursday. In the project, the students are divided up in to teams of four to six and are given a legal case involving alcohol and negligence. They become the prosecution team. They read affidavits, depositions, background information and interview professionals in the community.

Once they have the facts they present their case to the rest of the class. After the students present their case, they hear the actual defense presentation for the case, and then offer a rebuttal to the defense.

The rest of the students serve as jury and cast their vote as to whether the prosecution team made their case.

“These students have learned that teens and adults make individual decisions to drink alcohol, but don't always consider the impact that drinking could have on friends, family and the community,” Tobias said.

Andrew Boylan presented a rebuttal in one of the cases.

“I now understand more how court works and how they try civil cases,” Boylan said. “I learned what it was like to provide a rebuttal to the defense and be tried by a jury.”

On Thursday, Oct. 16, students presented two cases. Principal Tom Bertucci was the “judge,” and Hauk attended to give feedback on what might happen in an actual courtroom.

The first case involved drinking and vandalism. The student jury found the Bixby Frog Festival Planning Committee guilty of negligence for not requiring their servers at the beer tent to “card” students. This led to the decision of four minors to consume alcohol and, while under the influence of alcohol, they broke into a cabin and damaged the property. The underage drinkers had already been found guilty.

The student jury found that the committee was negligent, 21 to 2. They voted to award the cabin owners half the damages requested in the suit, since they had already received some restitution as a result of the guilty verdict of the teens in the criminal case.

In a second case that involved drinking and driving, parents included their underage son and his friend in a champagne celebration of the dad's promotion. Four bottles of champagne were open and unattended, and the parents knew that the boys planned to drive to a party later that evening.

The jury found the parents guilty of negligence for providing alcohol to their son and his friend which led to the car crash that left the son injured and the son's friend in a coma.

The vote was 13 guilty, 8 not guilty; and 11 voted that the parents of the friend should receive damages to help pay for the cost of taking care of their comatose son.