Many students at Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting sighed with relief when the council rejected a proposal to raise the age requirement to enter East Baton Rouge Parish bars.
Council members voted 8 to 4 against the amendment to the city and parish alcohol ordinance that would have prevented 18- to 20-year-olds from entering bars and lounges.
Patrons still will be able to enter these establishments at 18 since the amendment failed.
District 12 Councilman Jim Benham said he proposed the amendment to help prevent underage drinking. He said it would have stopped “enforcement” problems that exist in bars and lounges and give underage drinkers access to alcohol.
Community members, including University students and people from outside East Baton Rouge Parish spoke at the public hearing for the amendment. The hearing lasted more than two hours.
Bar and restaurant owners spoke against the amendment, saying they would lose revenue if the amendment passed. Military personnel — who would have been part of the affected age group — said lounges often are the only places they can go to play pool while waiting for deployment.
Several of the more than 30 students who attended also spoke against the amendment.
Student Government President Allen Richey said that bars offer a supervised environment, as opposed to unregulated house parties. He said bars prevent underage drinkers from getting alcohol.
“I’m at a loss to understand what this policy will actually accomplish,” he said to the council.
Richey said after the vote that he was glad the amendment failed, because it showed student input can make a difference in government.
“One thing this signifies is that we need to organize politically as students,” he said.
Representatives from alcohol abuse prevention organizations such as the Campus-Community Coalition for Change and Mothers Against Drunk Driving spoke in favor of the amendment.
Jarrod Moore, an electrical engineering senior, was the only student at the meeting who spoke in favor of the amendment. He said going to bars is not the only activity students participate in.
“I have been able to keep my time occupied in countless other events,” he said.
Moore said after the vote that he is not discouraged but feels a small sense of accomplishment.
“We were able to gain four votes of the 12 council members, considering five years ago it might have been an 11 to 1 vote or not even considered,” he said. “When alcohol is involved, people often get fearful when a major change is trying to be implemented.”
Tammy and Kirk Domingue, parents of 19-year-old student Corey Domingue who died from alcohol poisoning in October, also spoke in favor of the amendment at the meeting.
“My son drank four times in his life, and it killed him,” Kirk said as his voice cracked.
But another speaker later pointed out that Corey died from alcohol consumed in his own apartment and not from a bar.
The BRPD report from Corey’s Oct. 10 death said city police responded to a call made by Corey’s friends from his apartment. Cpl. Don Kelly said in an Oct. 14 Reveille story that Corey reportedly drank a fifth of rum in just a few hours’ time.