Bartenders Get Course in Preventing Underage Drinking

The ABC Commission held a meeting to educate restaurant workers about underage drinking at the Chapel Hill Library on Tuesday.

The class was organized by the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles to teach servers and bartenders how to deal with underage drinking. They also discussed when to cut someone off if they have had too much.

Kat Haney is the Coalitions Director with the ABC Commission

“There is a gap between hearing it once or reading it online or knowing it’s what you have to do. That’s the gap we are trying to fill, we are trying to make [servers] to feel empowered,” said Haney.

These classes come after He’s Not Here and La Residence have faced punishment after serving a group of underage patrons, including former UNC student Chandler Kania, who was then involved in a fatal accident on I-85. Kania was using an ID of an older friend that night.

He’s Not Here has not paid a $15,000 fine yet, according to ABC Commission Spokesperson Agnes Stevens, but ownership must do so by Friday to lessen the suspension of the bar’s alcohol permits.

Haney said that information about underage drinking doesn’t usually get passed down from owners and managers to the one’s actually checking IDs.

“Once they got that permit that information doesn’t trickle down to the rest of the staff so we are trying to do is give them all that information up front so that they feel confident and they can make the right decision,” said Haney.

The class was part of the governor’s task force to combat underage drinking.

According to the task-force website, the average North Carolinian has their first drink at 14.

Haney and the ABC commission have taught these classes around the state and this is their second visit to Chapel Hill. They tailor the class to specific issues in the area and in Chapel Hill that’s fake IDs and foreign IDs.

“Here for example there are a lot of foreign students coming to Chapel Hill so we are very mindful to go over the four forms of acceptable ID and that does not include a library card from Burma,” said Haney.

AJ McMillion, a DMW Inspector, detailed some of the common differences between fake IDs and the real thing. He also passed around samples of the new North Carolina IDs.

“I think it’s important for these bartenders to actually feel that ID and hear the security features,” said Haney.

Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said these classes have helped reduce fines and tickets for establishments in Chapel Hill.

“I’ll tell you what we’ve observed since this training has been offered more and more the last few years when we go out and do compliance checks, undercover operations and underage buyer operations, we are seeing the failure rates in Chapel Hill go down dramatically,” said Blue.

An employee from He’s Not Here was in attendance. None of the servers who attended were interested in being interviewed.

The efforts of these classes and the governor’s task force are attempting to change an established cultural norm of underage drinking and that is going to take a long time to do.