Coronado Eagle, Volume 3, Number 22, 25 November 1992 — Kids and Kegs [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kids and Kegs

by Danuta Soderman

Two years ago this column contained a series of articles concerning my teenage step-daughter newly arrived from Sweden and attending Coronado High School. One of the reasons she is no longer living with us was the fact that Coronado schools were comprised of elements not unlike schools in every other U.S. community: too many drugs, too much booze and too much pressure to participate. For a foreign student, it was overwhelming. She missed classes, was failing in almost every subject and her cheerful disposition had disappeared. Now, two years later, she has graduated from high school in Sweden with above average grades, has held a permanent part-time job, and her sunny disposition has returned. It was not surprising to me, nor to many others, I presume, when near tragedy struck four Coronado youths in a vehicle accident on the Silver Strand a month ago. Alcohol was involved. Kids and booze is an especially volatile and often fatal combination. The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force of San Diego acknowledges the rate of high school drinking in the county is among the highest in the state. Car accidents are the leading cause of teenage deaths, half of them alcoholrelated. Fortunately, Coronado is concerned enough to take some positive steps to prevent such tragedies from striking home. A citizen’s task force has formed a parent-student coalition against drug and alcohol abuse. A group called PRESPONSE intervenes to help kids already in trouble. The Red Ribbon Task Force hopes to thwart substance abuse through education, information and alternative activities.

It’s a good first step. Perhaps we could add another idea: Keg-tagging. Beer kegs often support teen parties, kegs are cheaper than cans and dispense in volume. A proposal to tag the kegs with serial numbers corresponding to the numbers on the rental forms for the kegs could help police match the buyer with the keg, if the keg were found in the possession of minors. The identification tags on beer kegs has been so effective in Greenfield, Massachusetts, about the size of Coronado, that the chief of police there says they haven’t had an alcohol-related death of a teenager since tagging started. Not that tagging is a panacea for kids who want to drink, but it would make the adult purchasing the booze for minors think twice. He would be held responsible. It’s an idea that could spare the lives of our children, but don’t expect everybody to endorse such life-savers. The liquor industry lobbied against such a measure and effectively killed an assembly bill last year that would have required keg-tagging statewide. Kids are going to drink, if they want to drink, regardless of community efforts to stem the tide, but perhaps by making the alcohol more expensive and less prevalent, by informing parents and educating our children, by involving the entire community, we could honestly say we are doing our best. It’s better than looking the other way and denying the problem exists here. Substance abuse is alive and well in Coronado, as it is in every town in America, but at least this community is facing this difficult truth head-on, with hands-on tough love. This Thanksgiving, that’s something to be thankful few.