Protest Against Teen-Drinking Measure Planned for Next Council Meeting

A group of students plan to fight the looming Social Host Ordinance, the first phase of which passed the city council last week on a 5-0 vote.

The planned ordinance will essentially punish parents who supply alcohol for their underage kids, particularly when it comes to throwing parties.

And now Andrew Landsiedel, Adam Redding-Kauffman and Macklin Thornton, students who spoke at Tuesday's meeting in opposition to the SHO, have started a Facebook group page in hopes of getting the word out to a wider audience. The tactic seems to be working: the page has landed 630 members so far.

They're also planning a protest outside city council chambers an hour before the council's next meeting, May 15.

As they declare on the Facebook page, the SHO "may seem like a good idea at first, but it could have harsh consequences. When a similar ordinance was enacted in Santa Barbara, deaths from alcohol skyrocketed because kids were too afraid to call 911. This will not solve teen drinking ... this ordinance will merely sever a branch of a problem that has deeper roots than we can touch. Teen drinking cannot be stopped by extending police power. It cannot be fully stopped regardless of what is done about it. If we can get the city to realize this, we will make Laguna a much safer city for our youth."

Click here to view their Facebook page.