Gorham police are investigating an underage drinking party in late February attended by several Gorham High School hockey players a few before a playoff game.
Few details of the incident have been released by school officials.
The grandparents of one of the players have questioned why the players were not suspended from a playoff game that took place after the party.
Police Chief Ron Shepard, who said he could not release details from the investigation, said police have yet to determine how many teenagers were involved. He said police were seeking to find out where the alcohol came from and who provided it.
“We’re looking into the whole thing,” Shepard said.
Shepard said furnishing alcohol to a minor is a class D crime. Shepard said a first offense would be punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and a year in jail.
School officials have declined to release details of the incident or of any disciplinary action taken against students. “The Gorham School Department does not discuss issues concerning what, if any student disciplinary action may be taken in a given situation,” School Superintendent Ted Sharp said in an e-mail.
In a Feb. 26 letter to high school administrators – two days after the team’s loss to Deering High School in a preliminary round of the playoffs – Bob and Candi Oliver, grandparents of a hockey player, questioned why members of the hockey team “caught drinking in the week before the playoff game” were allowed to play.
“We are very disappointed in the message sent to all athletes in Gorham,” the Olivers wrote, noting that all players sign a “zero-tolerance” policy on drinking and drug use.
Gorham players sign a form in the athletic guide, an eight-page manual outlining the school’s policies on participation in sports. The guide spells out a drug- and alcohol-use policy in which students are forbidden to “distribute, dispense, possess, use or be under the influence” of any intoxicating liquor or drugs. The first time students violate the policy, they are suspended from regular season and tournament games for two weeks.
High School Principal John Drisko responded to the Olivers in a letter, writing that the school adhered to the policy in the athletic handbook.
Drisko wrote that, under the school’s policy, players who self- refer – turn themselves in – “may not be suspended from practice or play.” He added that three players self-referred and one did not.
The policy requires students to come to school administrators first, before officials hear of an incident from other sources. The athletic guide says that players who turn themselves in may not be suspended if they willingly participate in the form of treatment approved by the school administration.
“We followed the policy to the T, as it’s written down in the student athlete handbook,” Drisko said in an interview, but then declined to comment further.
Bob Oliver said he talked with Gorham Athletic Director Gerry Durgin at the hockey tournament game at the Portland Ice Arena. “Do our boys have a little drinking problem?” he said he asked Durgin.
Oliver said Durgin told him the situation had been taken care of. “Durgin said the parents turned them in,” Oliver said.
“We met with the athletes and their parents,” Durgin confirmed Tuesday.
Durgin said the athletes were hockey players, but he declined further comment.
Jim Hager, chairman of the school committee, said Monday the matter was handled internally at the school. He said the school committee, which establishes policy, hasn’t been involved in the incident so far. Hager expressed faith that administrators handled the situation according to policy. Sharp agreed that Drisko followed the “policy and protocols” required of school administrators.
However, Oliver is urging a change in policy that would still encourage students to voluntarily admit a problem. He believes the policy should require suspension from a team but less of a suspension for those who turn themselves in.
“It’s not the boys I have a problem with. My position is the policy,” Oliver said. “The policy needs to be written.”
Candi Oliver described the grapevine in Gorham as “rampant” with talk about the situation. And she said some other students have been left confused. “They don’t see any repercussions,” she said.
Boys hockey coach Eric Wales declined to comment. “There’s no issue,” he said.
Gorham Police Officer Wayne Drown, resource officer at the high school, is investigating the case.
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