Topeka ? Proponents of a bill tightening penalties for underage drinking were rethinking their position after the chief sponsor agreed to leave intact a state law that allows parents to give their children weak beer.

The amended bill was endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote Monday and moved to the Senate.

As originally proposed, the bill would have strengthened the punishment for minor drivers who drink alcohol and repealed a decades-old Kansas law that lets parents legally give their children “cereal malt beverage” — beer that is 3.2 percent or less alcohol by weight.

Kansas’ drinking age for any type of beer as well as wine and liquor is 21. Grocery stores can sell only cereal malt beverage, while liquor stores must sell strong beer.

A coalition of groups that fight underage drinking expressed disappointment that the bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Kay O’Connor, agreed to take out the proposed repeal of the cereal malt beverage law.

O’Connor, R-Olathe, said she agreed to leave the law alone because she had not heard any complaints about it and believes parents know what is right for their children.

“I think we live in a society where parents should be trusted to make that decision,” O’Connor said.

As sent to the full Senate, the bill would lengthen the driver’s license suspensions of people convicted of underage drinking from the current 30 days for every offense to 90 days for a second conviction and one year for a third conviction.

Serving alcohol to children is illegal in Kansas and most states. But under Kansas law, weak beer isn’t considered an “alcoholic liquor.”

The distinction stems from the 1930s, when the Kansas Constitution still prohibited the manufacture, sale or consumption of alcohol.

Stephanie Neu, an education and training consultant with the Johnson County Regional Prevention Center, said proponents of the bill wanted to make it illegal for parents to serve their children weak beer. The proponents will reconsider their support in light of the amendment.

“I think some people have more of an ‘old-school’-minded thinking. They don’t want that particular right taken away from them,” Neu said.

The law’s weak beer exception sends mixed messages to children, said Kathleen Rieth, Johnson County’s director of juvenile programming for court services.

“Kids don’t understand it’s OK to do something here, and it’s not OK to do something there,” Rieth said.

O’Connor said that when the full Senate debated the bill, she would propose to amend it to make parents and adults liable for knowingly allowing underage drinking in their homes even if the minors acquired the alcoholic beverages somewhere else.