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Rockland party 'sad commentary' on teens
Rockland police broke up a large party involving underage drinking Sunday night at the Radisson Hotel on Hingham Street. Arraignments for 32 individuals were expected today in Hingham District Court. (Photo by J. Kiely Jr./The Enterprise)
By Maria Papadopoulos, ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
A Christmas night party that involved 30 underage youths in Rockland has local parents and officials shaking their heads.
"It's kind of a sad commentary, I guess, on Christmas night (to) have this many kids out drinking, doing drugs and partying," Rockland Deputy Police Chief John Llewellyn said Monday.
More than 30 people, mostly teenagers, were arrested Sunday during a rowdy Christmas night party at the Radisson Hotel in Rockland, police said.
Only two of the 32 people arrested were of legal drinking age, police said. Many of those arrested spent Christmas night in jail waiting for their parents to pick them up.
Underage drinking continues to be a problem in communities throughout the region.
Studies say overall youth alcohol use has remained flat and at high levels over the past decade, despite substantial efforts in recent years to reduce youth access to alcohol at state and local levels.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that in 2003 nearly 11 million underage youth, ages 12 to 20, said they drank alcohol in the month prior to the survey.
"It's absurd. It really is," Abington parent Rosalie Gregoli, a teacher at Whitman Middle School, said about Sunday's underage drinking arrests.
In Rockland on Sunday, police responded to the Radisson Hotel on Hingham Street at 9:27 p.m. for a report of a disturbance.
When police officers investigated a report of a teenager being beaten at the hotel, they found a "large quantity" of alcohol in a room, along with some marijuana and heroin, Llewellyn said.
The partygoers were to be arraigned today in Hingham District Court on charges including underage drinking and disorderly conduct.
Llewellyn said an air pellet gun was allegedly held to the head of the youth who was beaten. Police confiscated the gun.
Police also are investigating whether hotel employees were aware of the party.
On Monday, parents, police, and community leaders wrestled with the question of who is responsible when there is underage drinking.
"It goes back to 'Do you know where your kids are and who they're with?' " said Hanover parent Mike Delaney, 53, a father of eight.
June Shire of Plympton, co-founder of the Plymouth County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the blame falls squarely on parents.
"The pendulum has got to start to swing and back to where the parents are parents," Shire said.
But others disagreed.
"You only have so much control of your children. You can't watch them all the time," said Steffen Hill, 31, of Abington.
Hill, who is not a parent, said authorities should focus more on penalizing the youths and not parents.
West Bridgewater Sgt. Christopher Werner said underage drinking continues to be a problem, particularly in warmer months.
"It's still around. You come across it quite a bit," Werner said.
Werner said the town aims to combat underage drinking through educational programs, including the West Bridgewater Drug and Alcohol Education Program at the high school.
"It's disturbing whenever that many youths congregate to take part in an activity that's basically illegal, no matter where they're from," Rockland High School Principal Stephen P. Sangster said of Sunday's arrests.
Local youths also reacted to the underage drinking arrests.
"I don't think it's that big of a deal," said Jon Johnson, 15, of Rockland, who was not at Sunday's party. "Kids are going to do what they're going to do."
His friend Peter Doyle of Pembroke said otherwise.
"I just think it's ridiculous," Doyle, 15, said. "(The youths) just shouldn't be able to get their hands on alcohol. I think it's stupid."
Abington resident Ali Hunter, 20, said Sunday's arrests should give the youths "a wake-up call."
Locally, underage drinking has had deadly consequences in recent months.
Plymouth police are seeking charges of providing alcohol to minors against a Plymouth man in connection with a canoeing accident that claimed the lives of a Plymouth teen and a Raynham 20-year-old last month.
In October, Lisa O'Connell, a 19-year-old Bridgewater State College student, was charged with drunken driving and motor vehicle homicide in a car accident that killed another student outside a Bridgewater bar.
