Alcohol committee to hold first official meeting

The Committee for Alcohol- and Drug-Free Teenagers will hold its first official meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Town Hall.

Dale Pratt-Wilson, who formed the committee last May, said the meeting will be a chance for the group to reorganize and refocus.

"We're looking to see how we can best change community norms and what that will look like," Pratt-Wilson said.

Though tonight is the committee's first meeting, it has hosted a series of community forums this fall to allow parents, school officials and law enforcement officers to discuss the issue of underage drinking.

Pratt-Wilson said the committee will determine its next steps in trying to curb what it sees as the rising trend of teenage drinking.

"That may require some subcommittees to work specifically with the schools, the town, the police department and the retail end of things," she said.

Building a base of community support has been one of Pratt-Wilson's primary goals.

"We want this group to be both a workgroup and a watchdog group," she said. "We'll talk to schools and police and parents, ask what they need from us and what we need from them."

Pratt-Wilson said she would like to see other community groups get involved as well.

"We hope to work with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce on some initiatives to get retailers to take a stand on this issue," she said.

Many school officials and parents say they are pleased that the committee is addressing the issue.

"I think the stuff that (Pratt-Wilson) has done with the community group has been really valuable," said Stephanie Willis, health services coordinator for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

Willis said Pratt-Wilson has succeeded in mobilizing the community.

"She's not going to be deterred," Willis said. "Schools are more amorphous than she realized, and there are many entities among the larger entity of the school system."

Willis also said the committee's work is the first community-based effort to prevent underage drinking in 25 years.

"We've had prevention and referral programs in place for a long time, but we're still not getting at the problem," Willis said. "It's a community problem."

Linda Coleman, co-president of the PTSA at East Chapel Hill High School, said she believes parents play the most important role in the fight against underage drinking.

"I think the most important thing right now is to get parents to acknowledge the problem and be responsible for their kids," she said.

But Pratt-Wilson's efforts have not been well-received by all, as she has been the recent target of several incidences of vandalism.

Several parents were reluctant to comment on the issue for fear of similar targeting.

The PTSA at East published a letter in its newsletter condemning the vandalism, Coleman said.

Keeping the issue relevant is one of Pratt-Wilson's most important achievements, Coleman said.

"We need to keep the issue at the top of people's minds," she said. "We are a community with a potential to make changes."

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.