Illinois school receives grant to fight underage drinking

Underage drinking among upperclassman in high school and college students remains high. Individuals in this age group often experiment with alcohol, which may lead to drug use and unintentional injuries.

As a result, law enforcement officials from the Benedictine University Police Department recently announced that they have received a grant to combat under drinking and impaired driving on campus, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The police department received a $5,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services, which will subsidize salaries and equipment such as portable breath test devices, which are used to determine if an individual has consumed alcohol.

“The grant will allow us to conduct random safety checkpoints on campus, increase monitoring of parties at apartments and the residence halls on campus and station plain-clothes and uniformed police ... to make sure that servers are checking IDs,” Paul Creekmore, university police officer told the news source.

For adolescents who seek substance abuse help, programs for troubled teens can help by offering drug rehab and group therapy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 41 percent of all teen deaths from motor vehicle crashes involve alcohol.