Mundelein group launches new underage drinking, social hosting campaign targeting high school parents

Mundelein STAND-UP Task Force and the Mundelein High School STAND-UP organization, have begun a campaign targeting the parents of high school students and the community at-large, regarding the village’s social hosting ordinance.

The groups are also campaigning against underage drinking in the community.

This campaign includes a community wide canvassing of “Parents Who Host Lose The Most” signs, banners and other materials. Posters and fliers explaining the social hosting ordinance in a “reader friendly” manner were also distributed throughout Mundelein.

Mundelein is one of several Lake County communities that have approved social hosting ordinances. The ordinance is intended to hold any adult, not just parents, accountable for playing host to an event where kids are drinking or doing drugs. It also broadens the kinds of places where the law can be enforced.

Students and adults working on the Mundelein campaign hope to reinforce the reality that parents need to set “zero tolerance to drinking” limits for their children; retailers must commit to not selling alcohol to minors; schools, churches, libraries and park districts must be willing to provide enticing activities of interest to youth that do not involve drinking; and laws pertaining to underage drinking must be enforced with violators held accountable.

Statistics show parental disapproval is the number-one reason teens choose to abstain from alcohol use. Underage drinking and drug use strongly correlates with substandard brain development, poor academic performance, promiscuity, victimization, and illicit drug use.

Mundelein STAND-UP Task Force has been in existence for five years and is a group of community members (business, education, ministry, government, and private citizens) and high school students whose main goal is to reduce underage drinking and drug use in Mundelein.

To join Mundelein STAND-UP Task Force contact John at (847) 968-3770 or visit the website at http://mundeleinstandup.org.