Channel 10 reporter Dan Jaehnig asks Bishop Feehan High School student Michael Pierard how he handles peer pressure when it comes to others drinking at parties. Other students are, from left, Robert Krahn, Molly Beauchemin and Stewart Weymouth.

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The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

CRANSTON — At a time when alcohol is so prominent in society, what can society do about underage drinking — especially the extreme variety, intoxication, implicated in the deaths of six young people in boat and car accidents in recent years, including two this summer and fall in Barrington.

That was the question put to 22 students, parents, experts and law enforcement officials last night during a taping of Teen Drinking: Crime or Culture?, a WJAR-TV (Channel 10) one-hour special scheduled for broadcast tonight at 7.

Not surprisingly, given differing beliefs and practices regarding alcohol, no single answer emerged during the session. There wasn’t even agreement on whether underage drinking is a state and national “epidemic,” as several said, or merely a stage that other countries, Europeans especially, accept as a normal rite of passage to adulthood.

Brown University anthropologist Dwight Heath, a specialist in alcohol consumption and patterns in different countries, said he finds the European model acceptable. Maintaining that “we are not having an open dialogue,” Barrington mother of two Claudia Rowland urged schools, police, parents and community leaders to come together. And Susan Wallace, founder of Caritas House, a treatment center in Pawtucket for girls and young women with alcohol and substance-abuse problems, urged parental vigilance and consequences for underage drinkers.

But the most compelling voice was not even in the Channel 10 studio. He was at the Adult Correctional Institutions, connected by a live hookup to a flat-screen monitor and able to answer questions.

Brendan Lombardi was 18 and living in Barrington in April 2003 when he crashed his car into a tree during a street race through Swansea, Warren and Bristol. Two teenage passengers died. Lombardi was drunk. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Asked by a student if the tragedy haunts him, Lombardi said: “I think about it every night and first thing every morning.” He said he wished he could change history. “I hope I can help teenagers learn from my mistakes and my choices.”

Lombardi was released for one day in October to speak at Barrington High School. Stewart Weymouth, a student at the school, said the inmate’s talk “definitely impacted us,” in a way ordinary assemblies didn’t.

Eight underage students from Barrington High School, the University of Rhode Island, East Greenwich, Bishop Feehan High School and Seekonk High School joined the program. All but one said they had consumed alcohol.

Along with several others, Lombardi, who started drinking as a young teen, did not agree with European model of drinking. “I don’t think starting a kid drinking early in any way helps him,” he said.

His advice to youngsters who do wind up intoxicated? “Don’t be afraid to call your parents [for a ride]. It’s better to be grounded for a weekend than wind up like me.”

Wallace told the group that in her decades in the treatment business, she has seen the advent of a new class of young alcohol abusers that do not fit the stereotype of troubled children from fractured homes. This new group, she said, is comprised of youngsters from affluent and stable homes who do well in school. Perhaps from boredom or to alleviate stress, they drink on weekends — but not for fun.

“It’s to get completely blasted,” she said, “and those are the kids who are at highest risk of getting in a car and getting involved in accidents. The only kids who are safe are kids whose parents keep them safe.” And that does not happen, she maintained, in homes where parents do not care. “Parents have to take back control,” she said.

Barrington police Chief John LaCross said that public officials do no one any favors when they attempt to deny that underage drinking is an issue. “If you bury it and put it underground,” he said, “nothing happens.” The mentality then becomes “we don’t have a problem,” he said.

The program was hosted by Channel 10 anchors Patrice Wood, Gene Valicenti and Dan Jaehnig. The idea originated with Rowland, who approached investigative reporter Jim Taricani, who co-produced the special.

Taricani estimated that up to 200,000 viewers will watch the 10 Town Meeting Special, which will be rebroadcast Dec. 16 at noon. DVDs of the program will be distributed to schools statewide. The hope, said Wood, is that the program will prompt discussions in homes among parents and children, and in the broader community.

The taping was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. but was delayed more than 20 minutes by the late arrival of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch.

gwmiller@projo.com