SENATOR JOINS IN COSPONSORING BILLS TO CLAMP DOWN
ON COLLEGE TOWN UNDERAGE DRINKING

          Harrisburg, February 12, 2008 -- Underage drinking and the problems it causes in college communities are the targets of a package of bills co-sponsored by Senator Michael A. O’Pake and introduced in the State Senate today.
          “The problems of binge-drinking are growing ones for students and the communities alike,” said O’Pake, the Senate Democratic Whip, “and they require the increased accountability that these bills would bring.”
          “We need to address the problems if we hope to prevent tragedies like we have seen locally,” the Reading Democrat said. “Parents who pay the bills to send their children to school need and deserve better access to information. They should not be left to wait and wonder in the dark whether they will receive a hospital bill or coroners report before a graduation announcement.
          “And the families living in communities where schools are located need to be able to protect their homes and neighborhoods from foolish and irresponsible acts of students under the influence of the first whiffs of unsupervised independence.”
          A key part of the package, the Reading Democrat said, would give 10 percent of the state Liquor Tax collected in their borders to municipalities opting to use their own police to enforce the liquor law. 

Other bills in the package would:

-     Require all universities and colleges in Pennsylvania to notify parents of underage students of their policies on alcohol and drug use and for notifying parents when an underage student violates them or related state and local law, or when it is otherwise considered necessary to protect the health and safety of the student or others.

-     Require that public colleges and universities report every three months to the host community on their handling of students convicted of violating laws in the community,

-     Require magisterial district judges to notify public universities and colleges when a student is convicted of any offense, other than summary traffic offenses, with the host community.

-     Direct the Joint State Government Commission of the legislature to study notification practices in other states. 

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