Local Teens Help to Prevent Underage Drinking
Members of Teens Against Drunk Driving who participated in a recent “shoulder taps” event in Medford. Back, left to right- Alton Palmer, Jermaine Henderson, and Michael Henderson. Front, left to right- Sherine Thelemaque, Jenn Mui, and Tia Elliot. Courtesy photo.
On Thursday, August 11 a group of local teens stood outside Medford Square liquor store Grapevine Travelers and asked forty-nine people to purchase alcohol for them.
According to Penelope Bruce, Underage Drinking Coordinator for Medford Health Matters and the Medford Board of Health, each of the forty-nine people turned the teens down.
Bruce said the city has received a three-year grant from the state department of public health to combat underage drinking. Bruce, working with a team of teens and a police officer, sets up these “shoulder taps” events so that every store and restaurant that sells alcohol in Medford is evaluated twice per year.
On another such event held on May 21, local teens were sent around to the each of the city’s liquor stores and restaurants to attempt to purchase or order alcohol without an ID. While every liquor store refused to allow the teens to purchase booze without an ID, Bruce said three restaurants served the teens without asking for ID, though she declined to say which restaurants.
The restaurants were each written a violation, which go before Medford’s License Commission. Bruce said the commission is putting together its new violations policies.
Below is a message written by Jenn Mui and Sherine Thelemaque of Team TADD (Teens Against Drunk Driving) of Medford.
We are Jenn, Sherine, Tia, AJ, Michael, and Jermaine from team TADD. Team TADD (Teens against drinking and drugs) is a youth advisory council to Medford Health Matters that engages in underage drinking prevention, as well as prevention of drug use.
One of the strategies that we use to see how Medford is doing in underage drinking prevention is using shoulder taps. Shoulder taps are conducted by youth and are surveys. Youth will stand outside of a liquor store and literally tap the shoulders of oncoming adults. They will then proceed to tell the participants in the survey that they are under 21, and ask the participants if they would be willing to buy alcohol for them if given the money. Upon response, participants can receive up to two cards: Yes or No.
If participants say Yes, then they are given a card that lists all the consequences of providing underage youth with alcohol such as a $2,000 fine or being put in prison for up to a year.
If participants say No, then we get pretty excited and tell them that we were just conducting a survey and that’s great. They get the No card with the same consequences and hope that they will continue to say no in any future endeavors. The youth conducting the survey are not from Medford from in order to avoid awkward encounters with residents that may know Team TADD members.
This shoulder tap survey was conducted here at Grapevine Travelers Wine and Spirits, on August 11th. Lucky for us, the youth who were conducting the shoulder taps did not have to give out even one Yes card. That means 100% of everyone who was asked to buy alcohol said no.
Although we feel this is great, we must continue in our mission to enforce underage drinking prevention. We must conduct these surveys in different areas of Medford and hope that everyone will do their part by saying no. So please ask yourselves, are you doing your part?
– InsideMedford.com