With Mom and Dad in jail, Junior is SURE not to drink!

My 14yo's school sent me an e-mail yesterday, urging me to support passage of Mississippi House Bill 722, the "Social Host" bill as they call it:

Summary of the Bill - The “Social Host Bill is designed to prohibit adults from allowing a party to take place at a private residence/premises where alcohol is being consumed. This applies to any adult who knows or who should reasonably know that alcohol is being consumed. Violators of this act are punished with a misdemeanor and would receive criminal penalties in the form of a $1,000 fine and/or county jail imprisonment up to 90 days.”

I wrote back that I wasn't quite sure which of my son's friends' parents I would want to see jailed under such a law, but I appreciated learning the school's attitude towards the parents.

Call me an unreconstructed Democrat bleeding-heart, but I do not think that criminal penalties for parents are a particularly appropriate tactic here. And while there are doubtless crimes where one "reasonably should have known" this or that, the standard still makes me uneasy. My kid has a sleepover and they creep out of bed at 2 a.m. to sneak some bourbon out of the cabinet. Should I reasonably have known they would do that? Why didn't I have the cabinet locked? Why did I even have alcohol in my house? Do I want a jury to make these decisions?

Anyway, here's a list of the Judiciary A committee members whom I've been urged to write to and encourage to make parental negligence a crime. I may work up a letter, but not one the school had in mind. (Bonus question: why does a House committed have 30-odd members?)

Judiciary A committee-

Edward Blackmon-chairman
eblackmon@house.ms.gov

Angela Cockerham-vice-chairman
acockerham@house.ms.gov

Mark Baker mbaker@house.ms.gov

Earle Banks ebanksjax@aol.com

Jim Beckett jbeckett@house.ms.gov

Cecil Brown cbrown@house.ms.gov

Kimberly Campbell Buck
kcampbell@house.ms.gov

Credell Calhoun ccalhoun@house.ms.gov

Gary Chism gchism@house.ms.gov

Bryant Clark bclark@house.ms.gov

Alyce Griffin Clarke
aclarks@house.ms.gov

Linda Coleman lcoleman@house.ms.gov

Mary Coleman mcoleman@house.ms.gov

J. P. Compretta jcompretta@house.ms.gov

William Denny, Jr.
bdenny@house.ms.gov

Jim Ellington jellington@house.ms.gov

Tyrone Ellis tellis@house.ms.gov

James “Jim” Evans
jevans@house.ms.gov

Andy Gipson agipson@house.ms.gov

Philip Gunn pgunn@house.ms.gov

Steve Holland sholland@house.ms.gov

Greg Holloway, Sr. gholloway@house.ms.gov

Robert Johnson, III rjohnson@house.ms.gov

Bennett Malone bmalone@house.ms.gov

Rita Martinson rmartinson@house.ms.gov

Kevin McGee
kmcgee@house.ms.gov

America “Chuck” Middleton
amiddleton@house.ms.gov

Bobby Moak
bmoak@house.ms.gov

John L. Moore jmoore@house.ms.gov

Harvey Moss
hmoss@house.ms.gov

David Norquist dnorquist@house.ms.gov

Jimmy Puckett jpuckett@house.ms.gov

Tommy Reynolds
treynolds@house.ms.gov

Walter Robinson wrobinson@house.ms.gov

Ray Rogers rrogers@house.ms.gov

Ferr Smith fsmith@house.ms.gov

Greg Snowden
greg@gregsnowden.com

Jessica Upshaw jupshaw@house.ms.gov

Percy Watson pwatson@house.ms.gov

Tom Weathersby tweathersby@house.ms.gov

Adrienne Wooten
awooten@house.ms.gov