Three hundred New Berlin West High School students were at the Milwaukee County Zoo on Friday for a biology field trip.
At least three freshmen took the trip to the zoo as an opportunity to get drunk.
Not smart.
I don't think the purpose of the field trip was a biology lesson on the effects of alcohol intake on the body.
From New Berlin NOW:
Several New Berlin West High School freshmen were involved in an underage drinking incident at the Milwaukee County Zoo Friday, including a 14-year-old who had to be taken to the hospital for intoxication after he become unresponsive in the school bus on the way back to New Berlin, authorities said.
The boy's blood-alcohol content was 0.23, nearly three times the legal limit for an adult driver, police said. He was cited by New Berlin police for underage drinking.
...He was taken to Waukesha Memorial Hospital after 2 p.m. Police interviewed eight other students in connection with the incident, but none was cited by New Berlin police. However, Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies cited three other students for underage drinking, Deputy Inspector Edward Bailey said.
According to the Sheriff's Office report:
After the field trip was over, chaperons removed between 10 to 12 dozen students suspected of drinking from school buses. Those students all took Breathalyzer tests, which showed that three had consumed alcohol. The three also admitted to police that they had been drinking.
They also had a water bottle containing vodka in their possession.
"Our investigation shows these are the only youth who consumed," Bailey said.
One of the three students also claimed to have gone into some woods with other students to smoke marijuana. But the student did not have enough money, so was not allowed to smoke with the others. The student claimed not to know who the other students were and refused to point them out.
Deputies found no evidence of marijuana use when searching the possessions of the students who had been removed from the buses.
New Berlin School Superintendent Paul Kreutzer would not provide any details Monday on the incident or on what action - if any - would be taken against the students.
Overall, he said, the school has been pretty quiet when it comes to drug and alcohol problems.
"We haven't had a single instance of substances abuse this year," Kreutzer said.
Not a single instance of substance abuse the entire school year?
School officials must have missed a lot.
The freshmen involved in the incident certainly made a terrible choice. I guess they weren't all that interested in seeing the penguins and the monkeys and the elephants.
I wonder why they believed they could get away with bringing vodka along on the trip and consuming it without being caught.
Was chaperoning lax or were the students just really stupid?
Read the police report here.
The three juveniles involved were "handcuffed behind the back, the handcuffs double locked." They were taken to "the patrol substation for processing." Their parents and/or legal guardians were contacted and they took custody of their children. All three received "underage citations for possessing or consuming alcoholic beverages."
The three students have to face a mandatory court appearance.
It's a bad field trip when you end up handcuffed behind your back, double locked.
The handcuffs seem excessive. Maybe they did it for their own safety. Maybe it's policy. It still seems a bit much.
The timeline is a little confusing as to when the unresponsive boy on the bus was taken to the hospital.
According to the police report, the students were handcuffed at the zoo and then taken to the substation.
The boy was taken to Waukesha Memorial Hospital after 2:00 PM. Did his father or grandfather take the child for medical care?
In any event, this should serve as a warning for New Berlin Eisenhower freshmen. They're scheduled to take their field trip to the zoo this week. Those plans have not changed, though maybe some of the freshmen have changed their plans.
They'd be wise to put off the vodka and pot until after the field trip.
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