An underage drinking party that was broken up by police Tuesday night may have been attended by Westbrook High School student-athletes.
Westbrook police issued summonses after being called to a “loud, large” party at 11:40 p.m. on Sargent Street. Police did not release any names by the American Journal’s deadline Wednesday afternoon, and little additional information is known.
A spokeswoman at Westbrook Police Department said on Wednesday there was some underage drinking at the party. The investigating officer is Ben Hall.
Marc Sawyer, the Westbrook athletic director who recently announced his resignation effective in June, said Wednesday that the school department is investigating the report of the party.
“At this point, I’ve been notified of a potential student discipline matter, and we’ll be investigating as we do all of them,” he said.
Sawyer said they had received names of students involved in the party from multiple athletic programs, and that the names are not specific to one program.
Because it is a school vacation week, many administrators, including Superintendent Marc Gousse and Principal Jon Ross, are on vacation.
Gousse, reached Wednesday afternoon, said he wasn’t aware of the report, and that if police reported the incident to high school administration, he is “completely confident that it will be dealt with.”
Gousse said typically, the school finds out about these matters from either students admitting actions to coaches, or parents who report incidents to school staff.
It is unclear how many of the underage attendees were students, as well as how many of those students may be involved in student athletics.
The report of the party comes on the heels of an ongoing controversy stemming from a party in November 2013 that involved some 30 Westbrook student athletes, and the lifting of their suspensions from their respective sports programs.
In the wake of a report released in response to the controversy, the high school has been active in organizing committees made up of parents, staff and students, dedicated to supporting positive changes in the department, looking at the code of conduct policy and addressing issues of youth substance use.
Just last week, the Westbrook Communities that Care coalition hosted the third in a series of community forums following the report, this time focusing on youth substance use. The forum was highlighted by a performance by theater organization Maine Inside Out, which is made up of teens from the Long Creek Youth Development Center.
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