This graduation time, officers will be looking for underage drinkers

With 13 local high schools graduating this weekend and numerous parties to prove it, local law enforcement officials are warning would-be underage drinkers to think again.

"We are staying vigilant looking for any instances of minors drinking," said Lt. Jeff Elliott, of the Fremont Police. "Any parties that get out of hand, we’ll be looking for those, too."

Archbishop Bergan Catholic School holds its graduation on Saturday with Fremont following on May 18.

Elliott said officers will be on the lookout for underage drinking in neighborhoods and will look for the person who provided the alcohol.

"I won’t comment on any extra enforcement efforts we’re making on the stores," Elliott said. "We ask that parents monitor their kids and make sure they’re not drinking."

North Bend High School is just one of three schools graduating this weekend in Dodge County. The town of North Bend contracts with the Dodge County Sheriff’s office for law enforcement services and part of that deal includes extra patrols before and during graduation time.

"We’ve got extra patrol assigned in North Bend," Sheriff Steve Hespen said. "Through this weekend we’ll have extra deputies in North Bend. They’ll be looking for parties and underage drinking."

He said North Bend also has a history of pranks during the last week of school and deputies will have an eye out for those, too.

North Bend isn’t the only part of the county that deputies will be patrolling for underage drinking, he said. Deputies also will look for the source of the alcohol if a minor is caught drinking and will cite that person as well.

"We do not give free passes. The sheriff’s office is pretty strict on alcohol violations," Hespen said. "We don’t give warnings for MIPs and those sort of things. If you get caught, you will be cited."

Five Saunders County high schools graduate this weekend and Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz said his office is prepared for the expected underage drinking.

"We’ve identified locations where we’ve had problems in the past. That’s what we’ll be concentrating on," he said. "We have some areas and we have some residences that are known to host underage drinking."

An underage drinker will face a minor in possession charge punishable by up to a $500 fine, 90 days in jail or both. An adult caught providing alcohol faces a charge of procuring alcohol for a minor that carries up to a $1,000 fine, up to one year in jail or both.

"We work a lot to educate people that there are some serious consequences to providing alcohol to minors," Stukenholtz said. "It’s just a bad combination when you have individuals who are not experienced drivers and have a low tolerance to alcohol combined with the euphoria of graduation and peer pressure."

He said parents need to know where their children are going to be and talk about their expectations of the students remaining sober.

"It’s an excellent time to celebrate but you don’t want to ruin graduation and a celebration with somebody being injured or killed."