Friday, July 11, 2025
A gathering of community members and guest speakers from Nassau County joined together for an informational panel on the Social Host Law at the Oceanside Public Library on June 9.
As the season of celebration approaches, it is crucial for parents to understand the dangers of underage drinking and the laws in their community.
Guest speaker Judi Vining, executive director of Long Beach AWARE, CASAC and advocate for the Social Host Law, spoke on the responsibility of parents to be diligent about ensuring their children are not drinking underage. This includes measures such as locking up liquor, reporting underage drinking parties to law enforcement, and educating your children on the dangers of alcohol.
“Underage drinking and drinking parties are adult problems, Vining said. “There has to be an adult, providing it, allowing it, or simply looking away. Don’t be that adult.”
Parents in the audience learned about building a safe community through engaging with other parents and sharing values about alcohol safety to ensure their young children a safe and successful future.
Panelists included Dr. David Neubert, the director of prehospital medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau, John Radin Jr., retired Lieutenant at Long Beach Police Department, Sara Dowler, teacher at Oceanside School District, and Katie Tine, a senior at Oceanside High School.
Dr. Neubert provided intense descriptions of his time working as an ER doctor where cases involving underage drinking pile up on weekends, continuously endangering the lives of Long Island’s youth.
“On a regular night at the hospital, I see between five and ten people for alcohol or other drug overdoses.,” Neubert said. “It’s actually a lot more common than people would think; it’s weekends, nights, summertime, holidays.”
Dowler, as both a parent and teacher, educated parents about how to communicate the dangers of alcohol with their children and build a home where their kids are safe, happy, and know how to be social without engaging in underage drinking. Radin Jr., who is also a parent, described the liability that underage drinking is for all parents in the community and the tragedies that can come out of it.
It is not only about the fines parents would face under the Social Host Law, it is about preventing the injuries and deaths of our vulnerable youth.
“It doesn’t always have to be a tragedy,” Radin said as he reflected on his time working in law enforcement and seeing the dangers of underage drinking all too frequently.
Building trust between parent and child and educating them with the real facts about alcohol can give children a level of knowledge and understanding to allow them to make the right choices for themselves, and their futures.
A first-hand account of how teens view these laws comes from Katie Tine as she talks about how her fellow high schoolers do not fully understand the strictness of these laws and how the liability can fall on their parents very seriously.
“How much would you rather have fun on one night, or be able to enjoy the rest of your life?” Tine said.
