BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) – High school graduation season is here and many families will celebrate by hosting private parties. With that in mind, it is important to have a conversation with your teens about drinking and driving. That may help prevent a well-deserved celebration from ending in tragedy.
Graduating high school is definitely worth celebrating. It’s a big day in a young person’s life but it’s the alcohol at some parties that creates problems. “We know that brains aren’t fully formed. We know that sometimes common sense isn’t there with young kids and drinking and getting drunk only makes that worse,” explained Bryan Lewis, CEO of Intellicheck.
According to AAA, 53 percent of teens admit to drinking during or after high school graduation. That’s why during the Capital Area Human Services Prevention Project Sticker Shock campaign, high school students in the community posted stickers on alcohol to remind teens of the danger. “And I would like to send a message to my peers at Central High School, especially the seniors, let’s stop the drinking,” stated LaRiah Foster, a senior at Central High School. Another student agreed saying, “This means a lot to me to come out and help the Central community because I want to get all underage drinking to stop.”
CEO of Intellicheck, Bryan Lewis, says one issue is parents providing the alcohol but another is fake ids. “We certainly see ease of access to alcohol because fake ids are so good, so cheap and so easy to get.”
Experts say when your child makes smart decisions they will be able to return home safely and move forward in their next chapter. “If you go against the crowd and you’re setting yourself up for really good success throughout life,” Lewis said.
