In the past, underage drinking has cost the lives of many teens and the heartache of many families. Yet, in most cases when it goes on, people often decide to look the other way.

Underage drinking isn’t new on campus, but like any other area, it is sure to result in a number of deadly incidents. According to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, nine teenagers die each day from alcohol-related causes. Underage drinking is an issue that most students disregard, while others think is simply unavoidable. But, when more people are starting to die from drinking, we cannot just stand by and let it happen.

According to a March 26 Chicago Tribune article, not too long after leaving a party where alcohol was served, five teenagers from Oswego were killed in a car accident.

State Rep. Tom Cross (R-Oswego) proposed that teenagers caught drinking alcohol should lose their driver’s licenses for three months. This isn’t the first time underage drinkers have died in car accidents, and it’s definitely a law that has been a long time coming.

Being at college, where drinking is a frequent pastime, some students grow tired of belligerent underage drinkers who wreak havoc on campus and especially at the dorms. The rules of alcohol consumption seem to be enforced less and less. According to a March 26 Northern Star article, five DeKalb liquor establishments allowed an underage person to purchase alcohol.

However, underage drinking occurs away from the bars most late nights. It occurs within the mass population of underclassmen in the dorms. It’s getting out of control when people start drinking even on weekdays.

Community advisers should do more to make sure the rules are being enforced. I’ve seen the presence of alcohol reported by both filling out a report and by telling the community adviser – and seen both go ignored. They do not take the drinking conditions seriously, even when it goes on in their own dorms.

Underage drinking can only get worse when the university and other establishments allow people to get away with it.

If the proposed law passes, it will influence teenagers, since their driving privileges would be in jeopardy while drinking. Even if teenage drinking doesn’t decrease, it’s better to take action and show some initiative rather than to just turn a blind eye like many places in DeKalb often do.

What will it take to enforce drinking laws in DeKalb? A careless freshman to lose his/her life when they occur everyday all around the country?

In a world where thousands of underage drinkers die in car accidents each year, people should take drinking and its consequences more seriously. If things continue like they do today in DeKalb, we should only expect the amount of underage drinking to get worse.