Thursday, May 22, 2008

Teen arrests create clash in Hazard

A high school principal leaves students unattended on school grounds after midnight. I'm sure they're good kids and nothing will go wrong. They're seniors, right?

OK...he's gone. Who brought the booze?

This from the Herald-Leader:

MAYOR, POLICE CHIEF AT ODDS;
OFFICERS FEAR FOR PAY RAISES
HAZARD --The early-morning arrest of several intoxicated students at Hazard High School has erupted into a public showdown between the city's mayor and police chief, causing fears among police that pay raises have been canceled.

Hazard Mayor Bill Gorman did not agree with the arrests, saying police should have turned the teens over to their parents without charging them, according to statements made during an open city commission meeting.

"I know you are right as far as the law is concerned, but as far as the compassion of this city is concerned, you were wrong," Gorman said to the police chief during the meeting, which three parents attended to complain.

"I disagree with you, mayor," responded police chief Ronnie Bryant. "I think this city wants us to enforce the law with our juveniles. I want to save their lives. I don't want to go to a funeral or to the hospital next time." ...

...Tension between the department and the city has been brewing since
the students were arrested about 1 a.m. on April 25.

Police and parents say more than a dozen students gathered at the school's football practice field to have a senior-year cookout.

Principal Happy Mobelini, who left the students about midnight, instructed them to lock the school's gate, Mobelini said. As he was leaving, he called city police and asked them to periodically check on the group until he returned, he said.

About thirty minutes later, when police drove to the field, they found half a dozen bottles of hard liquor and several cases of beer. Some of the teens were intoxicated, according to court records...

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