It's a question many parents face -- is it better to let teens drink at home, under adult supervision?
One Bayville father chose the wrong answer, say Nassau county police, when he decided to permit drinking at his son's seventeenth birthday party Saturday night.
"We heard a lot of kids going crazy," said a neighbor who would not give her name.
In all, 75 to 100 teens attended the party, according to police. When investigators were called to the noisy scene, they found damaging evidence.
"They noticed empty beer cans and bottles of liquor," said Nassau Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith. "They also noticed a young man unconscious and unresponsive."
That unidentified partygoer was just 16 years old, cops say. And police believe nearly everyone at the party was underage and, according to Det. Lt. Smith, homeowner Jeffrey Schneider, 51, provided the booze.
Schneider has been arrested for allegedly violating Nassau county's social host law.
"You can't allow it and if you see it, you must take steps to stop it," added Det. Lt. Smith.
Schneider is the eighth person taken into custody for alleged Social Host law violations in Nassau county this year. 26 were arrested in 2009.
"Too many parents are letting their kids drink, believing its a safer option; but it's not," said Jeffrey Reynolds of the L.I. Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence.
A national public service campaign has been urging parents to think twice before allowing teens to drink at home. "Parents Who Host Lose the Most," was the message screaming from a poster in Reynold's Williston Park office.
"It [addiction] doesn't begin with heroin or cocaine -- It begins with alcohol," said Reynolds. "And most teens take their first drink at home."
Schneider is due back in court next month. He faces a $250 fine if convicted. Any adult convicted three times of violating the social host law faces up to a year in jail.
"For someone to supply alcohol to young kids, that's upsetting," concluded Schneider's anonymous neighbor.
