By CONNIE NOLEN / Community Columnist

“Guest speaker at Above the Influence (ATI), Thursday morning at 7 a.m. in the choir room,” Windy Rosenstiel’s text said.

Connecting to the link attached led to Lara McCauley Alvis’s bio, who has worked in the district attorney’s office, currently works as a criminal attorney and has also worked as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama Law School.

As a Pelham High School alumnae and former Pelham Pantherette, Alvis has been gracious enough to return to speak at her alma mater on several occasions.

Rosenstiel, who leads ATIand is also a former Pantherette, called on Alvis to share the intricacies of Alabama law with her group of students committed to remaining drug-free.

Above the Influence signs were intriguing in the weeks preceding Alvis’s appearance.

“Lower drinking age may lead to ____ in high school. Find the answer at ATI” and “Should we change the drinking age?” aroused curiosity in the hallways.

“We planned to discuss the pros and cons of lowering the drinking age from a legal aspect. However, the discussion that ensued, turned out to be all cons,” said Rosenstiel.

Holding her young audience’s rapt attention, Alvis brought the discussion to a place where these students could truly imagine the consequences.

Revealing that the legal drinking age had once been 18 in many states, Alvis shared statistics revealing the vast increase in the death and accident rates during the time period that the legal drinking age was 18.

The decrease of student deaths and accidents with the drinking age moved back to 21 was sobering.

Alvis wanted to make one last point with these students dedicated to living a drug-free life and influencing others to do the same.

She dropped her folder of notes to the ground in front of the group.

“If the police came in right now,” Alvis said, “whose papers are these?”

“They belong to you,” the closest student said.

“No, these papers and anything else in my car would belong to every one of us when they are open and near us,” said Alvis. “Saying drugs or alcohol are not yours will not prevent you from being arrested.”

“Choose your companions carefully,” Alvis said.