42 Teens Cited For Alcohol At Weekend Beer Parties
Forty-two teen-agers were cited for being minors in possession of alcohol after authorities broke up two beer parties south of Spokane late Saturday and early Sunday, the Washington State Patrol reported.
Thirty-three students, identified by WSP as “predominately from Ferris High School,” were cited about 9 p.m. Saturday at a gathering near Highway 195 and Stentz Road.
Five hours later, nine students, identified by WSP as all attending Lewis and Clark High School, were cited at a separate gathering about two miles north of the first party.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday three sheriff’s deputies and six state troopers responded to a resident’s report of a beer party at Ridgecrest Estates, a gated, fenced development near Stentz Road and Highway 195.
Also about that time, the State Patrol received a call from a concerned parent who thought her daughter might be at the beer party, said WSP Sgt. Chris Powell.
Powell said law enforcement officers arriving at Ridgecrest Estates found 51 juveniles and a keg of beer. They cited 33 of the teens for possession of alcohol.
Powell said area residents told officers that juveniles have partied before at Ridgecrest Estates.
“They bypass the key card (lock) and get in there somehow,” Powell said. “They’ve driven over lawns, broken trees and started illegal campfires,” he added.
Officers said some of the teens who had not been drinking were allowed to drive some of the other juveniles home. Parents or police took the remaining juveniles home.
About 1 a.m. Sunday, State Patrol Sgt. Lee Boling discovered a group of nine teen-agers, identified as LC students, partying in a gravel pit.
The pit, owned by the State Department of Transportation, is between the northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 195, east of the old Mullan Hill Road, Powell said.
Troopers issued possession of alcohol citations to all nine teens at that beer party. Police and parents transported the juveniles home.
Powell said the gravel pit is not easily visible from the highway.
“The DOT said they’ve had some problems with illegal trespass,” he said, adding that Boling checked the pit while on routine patrol.
Asked to respond to the report, LC Principal Michael Howson said, “That’s news to me this happened. This is a community issue, a parent-police issue.
“We all have to be involved with what our kids are doing with their recreational time. Parents have to be concerned. I’m a parent, and I’m concerned.”
Howson added: “This wasn’t a Lewis and Clark function. It wasn’t at the school. That’s why we try to provide school activities, so these things won’t happen. But it’s a community issue.”
Ferris Principal Jon Bentz did not return phone calls asking for comment.
, DataTimes