Public hearing Tuesday on bill to stop kids from drinking in taverns

Talk about it

A state Assembly committee will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a bill to stop letting kids under 18 drink with their parents in taverns.

Terese Berceau, D-Madison, is one of the bill’s main sponsors and she chairs the Local Affairs Committee which will hold the hearing at the State Capitol.

Berceau doesn’t agree with those who say it’s part of Wisconsin’s ethnic traditions to let children have a drink with their parents in bars and restaurants.

Deb Burgess of the Marathon County Alcohol and Other Drugs Partnership group says the bill sends a clear message that underage drinking is not OK.

And she wished the bill would have included 18- to 20-year-olds as well.

Central Wisconsin alcohol educator Shannon Young says brains develop until age 25. And she cites national figures which show that kids who drink before they’re 15 are four times more likely to become dependent on alcohol than those who start drinking at 21.

A study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine shows that 49 percent of all Wisconsin high school students drink. That’s the highest percentage in the country.

Tags: wisconsin, taverns, parents, children