High school students also impacted by Iowa City's 21-only law

When Jayne Berglund was a senior at Iowa City West High School, a group of her friends would often go to downtown Iowa City bars on weekend nights.

“They'd be 17, 18 (years old),” she said. “All you have to do is sneak in the back door” or use a fake ID.

Berglund, who graduated from West in 2008 and is now a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, said she served as a designated driver and did not go to bars in high school, but she did go to college house parties.

The debate over the 21-only bar ordinance has focused mostly on college students, and for good reason: they're the ones doing most of the binge drinking at downtown bars. What's received very little attention, though, is that the law also affects high school students.

In a survey conducted last October, 29 percent of 11

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graders in the Iowa City school district reported drinking alcohol on one or more occasions in the previous 30 days. Seniors did not take the survey.

It's not clear how much of that drinking was done in bars or at college parties – Berglund said it was a small percentage when she was in high school while a current student said up to 30 students were regulars at bars last year. Dr. Michael Takacs said he has treated high school students with bar wristbands in the emergency room at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Several Iowa City area school administrators have come out in support of the 21-only law, which prevents people younger than 21 from being in bars after 10 p.m. Before the law took effect June 1, the minimum bar entry age was 19.

In the Nov. 2 election, voters are being asked whether to repeal the law. If that happens, bars would again be allowed to admit people 19 and older at night.

“We have 19-year-old kids at our high school and we have other kids who may try to employ false identification in order to get into a bar,” West High Principal Jerry Arganbright said. “And I think anything we can do to keep access to those who are legally able to drink … the better off we are.”

John Bacon, City High School's principal, said his experience as a bartender in downtown Iowa City while in college in the early 1990s showed him how hard it is to keep alcohol away from underage people once they are in a bar.

He said 21-only makes “it that much more difficult for high schoolers to have access to those types of establishments because it would be even more obvious that this individual is probably not 21 years of age.”

Jim Mondanaro takes a different view. He owns a few downtown Iowa City restaurants and is co-chair of the Iowa City Safety Committee, which opposes the 21-only law. He's also the father of two high school students.

He believes kicking young adults out of the bars is sending them to house parties, which he said are less safe. There's no one checking IDs at a party or monitoring for over consumption, he said.

Mondanaro does not want people younger than 19 in bars, but he worries about high school students having easy access to alcohol at a party and college-age men taking advantage of high school girls.

“When they go to the house party, there's no control,” Mondanaro said.

Nicole Jensen, a senior at West High and president of the school's chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving, said if young people want to drink, they'll find a way. She'd rather they were in a concentrated area like downtown where police officers and taxicabs are instead of roaming around the neighborhoods.

“I know people don't like the cops there, but I feel better knowing that there's a cop there who's going to break up a fight if that takes place, or anything like that,” she said.

Jensen is 17 years old and won't be eligible to vote in November, but if she could, she'd vote to repeal the ordinance. She thinks most of her classmates would too.

She estimated that up to 30 high school students were regulars at bars last school year, with others going occasionally. That's died down this year because of the law and because her senior class doesn't party as much as last year's, she said.

Arganbright said West has had one alcohol-related incident this school year, at an after-school activity, which is on par with years past. Bacon said City has had none.

Berglund, the former West High student, turns 21 later this month and will be voting in support of the 21-only ordinance, a position she acknowledged likely puts her in the extreme minority among college students.

She does not see bars as the safer option. At parties, people usually drink beer, but at bars, underage people are scared of getting caught with a drink by police officers, so they often take shots of alcohol and get drunk faster, she said.

“I don't know a single person who has ever gone to the bars and not drank,” Berglund said.