Bill would ban people under 21 from Louisiana bars; sponsor cites Madison Brooks’ death

Invoking the death of LSU student Madison Brooks in January, a state legislator is proposing a bill that would prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from entering a bar in Louisiana. 

Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, introduced Senate Bill 194 — which she’s calling the “Card ‘Em Act” — which would also set stiffer fines for bars caught serving alcohol to people who aren’t 21.

Mizell said there are too many underage students who, like Brooks, were able to drink illegally after being let into bars based on current laws.

“The thing is that the law says you have to be 21 to drink and it’s pretty obvious that we have a lot of underage drinkers that are being served illegally, but also overserved,” she said. “When you look at Madison’s story, there are so many ways things happened that shouldn’t have happened.”

Brooks’ death roiled LSU’s campus and spurred renewed attention to sexual assault against students.

Sheriff’s deputies said Brooks met a group of three men — two of whom were underage — and a 17-year-old after a night of drinking at Reggie’s, a Tigerland bar, and asked them to drive her home. But the group stopped by the side of a road and one man and the juvenile raped her in the back seat, arrest documents say. Brooks was later struck by a car and killed after the group dropped her off in a neighborhood near campus, deputies said.

In an event at LSU’s student union on Wednesday night, the Madison Brooks Foundation — which her mother, Ashley Baustert, created to advocate for young adults’ safety and spread awareness for organ donation — speakers voiced support for the bill.

“If Madi wasn’t there, then none of this would have happened in the first place,” Baustert said. “So I’m 100 percent in support of it.”

Continuing fallout

LSU’s president, William F. Tate IV, has vowed to tackle underage drinking in response to the Jan. 15 death — though some students and advocates criticized him for focusing on that issue instead of campus safety and a cultural problem of sexual assault at the university.

The Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control pulled the license for Reggie’s, and the bar faces a hearing on Monday that could lead to fines, a suspension or even a permanent revocation of its liquor license.

At the local level, the parish alcohol control office raised the fines for bars that violate city ordinances following Brooks’ death, and the Metro Council is weighing legislation to tackle the issue of underage drinking. 

Mizell’s bill takes that debate statewide. Businesses could be fined between $1,000 and $15,000, depending on how many violations they receive. The bill would also increase the cleansing period — the amount of time it takes for an offense to roll off a bar’s record — to 10 years from the first offense.

In its current form, Mizell said, the proposed legislation would also ban bartenders or employees under 21 years old from working at a bar. It would not apply to craft breweries or other public locations that sell alcohol.

“It’s a basic expectation, that’s why the law says the maturity of a person to drink is 21 and that’s something we put into effect in law,” Mizell said. “That’s the whole point of what the bill is trying to confirm.”

Some have concerns

Some Baton Rouge leaders have proposed raising the legal bar age, but others opposed the idea. They fear it would cause students to drink at house parties instead of at bars and further hamper regulation efforts.

Mizell said she feels bars are not doing their job in regulating underage drinking now and that her bill could help.

“Do we really think that the bars are being regulated?” she said. “If we’re worried about regulation, I think we can all agree that the bars are not being regulated or what happened with Madison could never have taken place.”

As for impacts on the business of bar owners, Mizell said the only business that would be affected by her bill are those that allow underage drinking.

“How can it hurt the business of local bars when local bars are not supposed to be profiting from underage drinkers?” she said. “I don’t think that’s a relevant point of opposition.”

Jordan Piazza, who owns Uncle Earl’s on Perkins Road, argues it’s not that simple.

Uncle Earl’s doesn’t allow people under the age of 21 into the bar during normal hours, but for private parties and Greek life events, people 18 and older are admitted, Piazza said. Fraternity and sorority events, in particular, would likely no longer be held at the establishment if younger members couldn’t attend, Piazza said.

“If someone has a private party and they have someone under 21, we’re more lenient because the law allows us to be,” Piazza said. “I would say we’re talking revenues that exceed a couple hundred thousand dollars. It wouldn’t be a drop in the bucket by any means.”

Piazza said he would like the state and parish governments to direct their resources toward stricter enforcement against bars that violate the law and underage patrons who use hard-to-catch fake IDs to drink. 

“The reality is we can make all these laws we want, but if nobody is holding people accountable to them, they’re irrelevant,” Piazza said.

Anthony Gallo, who owns Icehouse Tap Room on Airline Highway, said the legislation doesn’t pose an obstacle for his business, which only allows entry to people under the age of 21 if they’re accompanied by a parent, he said. The current laws create a situation “where people are set up for failure,” he said. 

“If you’re going to let them in under 21, they need to change the law and let them drink,” Gallo said. “If you’re not going to let them, the law needs to be 21. There’s no reason to let someone partake in the experience (of a bar) if they can’t partake in the experience of drinking alcohol.”

A deeper issue

Many female LSU students and advocates for sexual assault victims have been quick to say Brooks’ death exposes problems much deeper than underage drinking. Some sharply criticized the LSU president for focusing on the issue, saying it seemed to place blame on the use of alcohol instead of the criminal intent of the perpetrators. 

They point to a spate of high-profile cases where LSU was found to have mishandled cases of sexual misconduct against female students, particularly those involving student athletes. Mizell and other legislators have pushed to tighten the laws universities have to follow in reporting and addressing sexual harassment and assault.

While Baustert, Brooks’ mother, supports the bill, she says it should be the first of many steps. She urged young women to look out for themselves and each other.

“The main outcome is to prevent this from happening again and just to bring awareness,” she said. “A lot of times, you think nothing will happen to you and you let your guard down so it’s about keeping it top of mind. Look around wherever you are and be aware of your surroundings to watch out for each other.”