CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It is prom season. Usually at prom time, parents try to scare some sense into their children about drinking and driving. But earlier this week at Charlotte Catholic High School, some local experts tried to scare some sense into both children and parents.

It hasn't been a year since Tricia Ervin's son Alex died in a mangled Mitsubishi Eclipse.

"We lost our only child and its the most devastating thing anybody could go through.. its a loss that will never go away," said Ervin.

And though it was speed, not alcohol, that caused the crash, it is a sharp, graphic example of the impulsiveness of a teenage mind.

Charlotte Catholic High School had parents and teens walk by the car as they came for a meeting earlier this week. Most people stopped talking when they saw the car Inside the packed auditorium, Captain Michael Crowley with Alcohol Beverage Control warned parents about allowing their teens to drink at home, in a so-called safe environment..

"You can't do it. You will go to jail if you provide a place for kids to come and drink alcohol at your house, i promise you, you will go to jail," he said.

Steve Ward from the district attorney's office said when these parents were teens, drinking was sometimes overlooked, but things have changed.

"If you are a parent that allows that to go on, I advocate that you rename that college fund to college and criminal defense," he said.

While the legal threat may be enough to make parents obey the law, parent Donna Focht wants her teen to be able to resist peer pressure.

"I think the more we can tell the story over and over where they have the opportunities, the better prepared they are to have a conversation with their friends, how to handle it," she said.