Keeping the Holidays Safe for Teens

With the festive party season in full swing and soon to coincide with college students coming home for the holidays, Millburn's Municipal Alliance Committee is on a campaign to remind parents of the town's laws regarding underage drinking and hosting parties.

Some residents might be surprised to know that the Township's Social Host Ordinance governs supervised AND unsupervised parties.

“During this holiday season when traffic fatalities typically rise, college students are returning home and holiday parties abound, there is heightened risk for our community and of particular concern is the risk faced by our teens,” said Gail Barry, president of MMAC.  “Underage drinking is a local and national concern and therefore we would like to be sure that our community is aware of the existence of the social host law and the consequences related to underage drinking and hosting unsupervised parties.” 

MMAC will start running a public service announcement highlighting the ordinance and state laws and consequences of breaking those laws on Thursday.

While teens 18 or older are treated as adults in the eyes of the law in most cases, they are still underage when it comes to drinking. If they are arrested, not only will they be charged as adults, their names will appear in the police blotter, which runs in the local media and that may impact college choices and records, Barry said.

Offering alcohol to an underage person is a “disorderly persons offense” in New Jersey and is punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and up to six months in jail. Possession of alcohol by an underage person is also a disorderly persons offense, punishable by the same guidelines, with the exception that the fine shall not be less than $500.

Lt. Peter Eakley, Public Information Officer for the Millburn Police Department, said police have brought charges against parents and others who either ignore the law or are ignorant of it.

Eakley said the holiday season is not that much worse than the rest of the year – “it’s always a problem” but because there are lots of parties this time of year, it never hurts to have a reminder.

“No one should be serving an underage person,” Eakley said. “One, it’s against the law. Two, it’s a major liability, and three, as adults we should be setting a good example for young people.”

By creating the public service announcement, MMAC hopes parents will keep the laws in mind this holiday season -- and remember that "Parents who host lose the most."

Barry said, “Our hope is that this will be another opportunity to educate our community and build awareness of the potential criminal and civil consequences...Be a parent not a pal."