Read about senior athletes In sports
frid~y,november7, 1986
cabrinicollege,r~dnor,pa. 19087
vol. xxxiii,no. 8
Fake I.D.:
Jumpingthe gun to 21 · by Denise Brady
It's Friday night and you are sitting in your room wondering what to do. Movies? Frat party? Road trip? Suddenlv vour best friend calls and she has the perfect idea - barhopping! The only problem with that idea is that both of you are under 21, the legal drinking age in the-state of Pennsylvania. The question is, are you still going to go barhopping? If you are like most students at Cabrini, the answer is yes. It is relatively easy to either borrow a driver's license from someone who is 21 or to alter your own license by stenciling it or even by using a computer to print up a "legal" license. "I got a paper driver's license from New Jersey and a back- up college I.D. so I could socialize," senior, male, said. "Most ofmy friends are upperclassmen and they all go out to bars." Kathy Ross, senior, who is now 21, said she got a fake I.D. last year for the same reason. Unfortunately, on her first try at a bar near her home, Ross and her friends were caught by the manager, who summoned the police. Ross was fined $120 and given three points on her license. This didn't stop her from going out to bars until she was 21. "After I got caught I figured I'd never use fake I.D. again," she said, "but, after a while, I thought it would be safe to borrow someone else's I.D." Annemarie Baeurle, sophomore, got her fake I.D. from a girl she met at a wedding. The girl gave Baeurle her old driver's license and so far Baeurle hasn't been rejected at any of the bars she frequents. · "I've been lucky," she said. "It's a risky business. In the long run it's probably not worth it, but right now it's the norm to have fake I.D. and use it." "I like to go out and mingle and have a good time," Baeurle said. "I don't abuse it. I use good judgement." According to Lt. Kelly of the Radnor police department, not everybody who uses fake I.D. uses it wisely. Kelly said that if you are in a bar and are asked to show your I.D., telling the police or Liquor Control Board that you don't have any an~ were not carded will not stop them from taking you down to the station and doing a computer check on you.
'I've been lucky.Its (usingfake 1.0.)a risky business. In the long run it's probablynot worth it, but right now, its the norm to have fake 1.0.and use it.' -Annmarie Baeurle,sophomore According to Kelly, if you do show them your fake I.D., they will most likely issue you a citation and let you go. You could pay up to $143 for that citation. If y_ouput up an argument the police have been know to issue a misdemeanor charge and even to keep you in jail overnight. The fine for that offense is up to $2,500 and a maximum of one year in jail. "The second you present a false I.D. you are liable to be charged with the misrepresentation of age to secure liquor," Kelly said. "That is a misdemeanor of the third degree." Kelly also said that while the LCB and the police are working as hard as they can to stop the use of false I.D's, they know that they cannot catch everybody. Sometimes even they can't tell whether an I.D. is fake or not without doing some serious checking. '½Jso," Kelly said, "there is always someone thinking of a better way to come up with a fake I.D." That statement is par;ially the reason behind the new Pennsylvania driver's license. The new license has a raised commonwealth seal that is extremely hard to duplicate. If the license is tampered with, it will be obvious.
There is alwayssomeonethinkingof a better way to come up with a fake 1.D." -Lt. Kelly,Radnor police department Jim Ryan, manager of Smokey Joe's on Lancaster Avenue, said that it is very difficult, almost impossible, to get into his bar using fake I.D. "We always take fake I.D. away from the user and if we have any doubts at all we have the customer sign an affadavit," he said. According to Ryan, Smokey Joe's employees are trained to spot fake I.D. Ryan has a stack offake I.D.'s in his desk to prove this. Smokey Joe's has even installed a videotape camera to record customers being carded. just in case they use the old cliche, "I wasn't carded." Even beer distributors and liquor stores have protected themselves against underage drinkers. Bob Schatzel, manager of Bottle 'n' Can has a book he calls the "Bible." The "Bible" has pictures of every driver's license in the country, just so he can check out-ofstate I.D. The register at Bottle 'n' Can prints out records of whether ur not his customers have been carded and he trains his employees very carefully. He said it's fairly easy to spot someone with fake I.D. "They're usually nervous or walk around for a while. Some even start talking to me like they're my best friend.'' he said. He also said time has a great deal to do with it. ''The later it gets the younger the kids get," Ryan said. "Weekends are really bad, too. Those times are when we card the heaviest." Even with knowing all of these precautions against fake I.D. usage, there are many students who continue to alter, borrow or even use an older person's birth certificate to get themselves a new license just to get into a bar to get served. "It's just so I can get served and hang out with my friends," Mike Long, freshman, said, "and also because it's fun and everybody else has one."
Mik~ D<;>lan, freshman, wo'.! the prize for best costume at the Halloween dance
heletfiitl&JpOl:if:$r.Dolllr,~tllt/11'1' hit greifn"Gumby'' ouflt, is joined by
sophom°'!3 and proud cheerleader Dean Mago/on, foreground, and the not-so;~~:~d witch Karen Halcombe, sophomore, background. (photo by Monica
Studentcampaignsfor Hoeffel by Maria O'Brien Jill Lehman, sophomore, has always been interested in politics. She followed Joe Hoeffel's 1984 Congressional campaign for Pennsylvania's 13th district and she lilted him. Lehman has been working on the 1986 Hoeffel campaign for the past year. He is a democrat who currently lives in Abington and is a lawyer in Philadelphia. Hoeffel served four terms as a State Representative from Abington. His accomplishments include the passing oflaws that created a State Code of Ethics for public officials, protected lottery funds for senior citizens, strengthened penalties for Medicaid fraud, increased state funding for mass transit and established five-year mandatory minimum jail sentences for repeat violent offenders and for crimes committed with a gun. , "I met Joe at Cabrini's videoconference last year," Lehman said. "I volunteered to work for him that day, got involved in the Democratic committee and was appointed a committee person for Norristown's district 4-3." Lehman's involvement in Hoeffel's campaign included travelling with him during an ordinary day, registering voters, arranging interviews for him and shaking hands with him. According to Lehman, Hoeffel starts a normal day by shaking hands at train stations at 5:30 a.m. From 11a.m. to 3 p.m. he's in the office attending meetings, planning campaign strategies and completing paper work. For the next two hours he's out shaking hands in supermarkets. His night finally comes to an end around 8 p.m. after he has gone door to door shaking the hands of more constituents. Hoeffel is currently running against Larry Coughlin, republican, who has represented Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional district for 18 years.
Hoeffel ran against Coughlin two years ago in a 2-1 republican counting. This means that there are two republicans per democrat in the district. Hoeffel received 44"k of the votes. Lehman thinks that Hoeffel is a candi-W:::. date that she can trust. "The thing I like best about Joe is that when he says something, he means it," Lehman said. "He never evades an issue because someone disagrees with him. He always tells you what he truly believes. I don't feel that I can trust Coughlin."
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'I'd like to stay in politicsat a local level and I'll always support a candidateI believe in.' -Jill Lehman,sophomore The object of the political game in the 13th district is to get the Republicans to split their votes by voting for Hoeffel. Lehman thinks that the reason why Coughlin has remained in office for 18 years is . not because of his track record, but because Republicans vote the straight Republican ticket. "We don't want them to vote ·straight Republican," Lehman said. "We want them to look at the people not the party." Working directly with a congressional candidate gave Lehman some insight into the world of politics. "This campaign has made me realize that there's a lot more to-politics than voting," Lehman said. ''The campaign has also made me question any political career aspirations because it's so difficult and there's a lot of mud- slinging that goes on," Lehman said. "I'd like to stay in politics at a local level and I'll always support a candidate thai I believe in."
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