Will Watertown implement breathalyzer tests at dances, proms?

An article I wrote was published today in the Wakefield Daily Item about students taking breathalyzer tests at high school dances and proms.

It's an interesting debate: Where do we draw the line between student's civil rights and protecting the public from drunken driving?

I bring this up because these tests are an increasing trend, and I wouldn't be surprised if breathalyzers are implemented at Watertown High School dances and proms in the next year or two.

The Wakefield High School Principal, Elinor Freedman, told me she is part of the Association of Middlesex League Principals, which includes Watertown High School. She said most schools, including Watertown High, are "thinking about it" when it comes to breathalyzers.

Melrose, Wakefield, Newton, Westwood and Danvers are some local towns that have implemented students taking breathalyzers at dances, just to name a few. Given Watertown's close relationship with these towns, again, it wouldn't surprise me to see this happening soon.

I wish the Wakefield Daily Item had a better website.... Within 24 hours my article will be deleted from the outdated site, so there's no use in posting the link. Here is my article that was printed today:

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BREATHALYZER TEST TO BE GIVEN TO STUDENTS
At all dances and proms at WHS and Northeast

By DAN O’BRIEN (Wakefield Daily Item, March 26, 2007)

WAKEFIELD — Wakefield high school seniors have to complete many tasks before going to prom: Get a date, purchase an outfit, organize transportation and take photos... lots of photos.

But this year students must plan one more thing: Passing a breathalyzer test.

Both Wakefield Memorial High School and the Northeast Metro Tech Vocational High School will implement breathalyzer tests for the first time this prom season.

The principals of both schools say the breathalyzers won’t only be used at the prom, but at all school dances from now on.
The idea of using breathalyzers at school dances has already become reality in other local towns, such as Melrose and Danvers.

While there is typically a Wakefield police officer stationed at school dances, police officers will not be administering the tests. School officials will be screening students for alcohol consumption instead.

“I applaud the schools for having the foresight to do this,” said Wakefield Police Chief Rick Smith. “We’re looking at it as a preventative measure and an educational piece.”

Wakefield High School Principal Elinor Freedman, the wife of Melrose Schools Superintendent Joseph Casey, says she became concerned about student safety after several pupils approached her around October expressing concerns for underage drinking.

“This fall there were students, on more than one occasion, who came to me and expressed concerns about what the kids are doing,” Freedman said. “We do have many students in this school who are concerned as we are.”

After the students got the ball rolling, Freedman spoke with 10 other high school principals in the Middlesex League, who are involved in the Association of Middlesex League Principals.

Freedman then discussed the breathalyzer option with the Wakefield High School Council and Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), which decided to pay for two breathalyzers at $325 apiece.

The WHS Council, which serves as an advisory board to decisions made by the principal, was strongly in favor of the idea.

“Most everybody felt this was an issue and there have been problems at school dances,” said Rosemary Chansky, who co-chairs the council with Freedman.

About 30 parents attended an open meeting with school officials March 8 to talk about the use of breathalyzers at school dances.

“The people who were there were glad that she’s been proactive about this. Personally, I am,” Chansky said. “One student said more than half of the student body was drinking on the weekends.”

Freedman says student going to the prom now must sign a contract consenting to a breathalyzer test in order to attend.

Random students will be selected to take the test based on a number that will be printed on their ticket. A student would also be forced to take the breathalyzer if he or she is exhibiting signs of intoxication.

If a student fails a sobriety test, he or she would either be taken home by a parent or placed into police protective custody. If the student requires medical attention, he or she would be brought to a local hospital and his or her parents would be immediately notified.

Being placed into police protective custody is not the same as being arrested. Police routinely take in highly intoxicated individuals for a few hours so they can “sober up,” which prevents them from destructive or even deadly behavior, such as driving a car.

WHS has been trying to raise awareness of underage drinking throughout the school year. In addition to recent meetings, the school hosted a discussion by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and a private law firm called “Be A Parent, Not A Pal,” last fall to talk about Massachusetts’ Social Host Law and the dangers of underage drinking.

While Wakefield High has not suffered any drinking-related tragedies in recent years, Freedman says the school couldn’t stand by and wait for something horrible to happen before changes are made.

In the past, “we have had parents take kids to the hospital,” she said. “Shame on us if we wait for a tragedy to happen.”

John X. Crowley, Principal of Northeast Metro Tech, says his school’s breathalyzers were purchased by the Northeast’s chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD). He credits Dr. Eileen Erwin, Principal at Danvers High School with starting a local breathalyzer trend.

“Reaction from both parents and students has been more than favorable,” Crowley said.

In Melrose, every high school student must pass a breathalyzer test in order to walk through the door at every dance and prom, according to Bob Savarino, an assistant principal of Melrose High School.

Melrose began testing its students for alcohol consumption at dances and proms last year, Savarino said.


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Breathalyzer, adj. — A trademark used for a device that detects and measures alcohol in expired air so as to determine the concentration of alcohol in a person’s blood. This trademark, often used attributively, sometimes occurs in print in lowercase: “An arrestee requests to speak with or call an attorney, or anyone else, when requested to take a breathalyzer test.” (National Law Journal)

Beating the Boston TV stations to the punch

Newspaper reporters have a love/hate relationship with local TV news stations. We love it when we break a story that the TV stations pick up, but we hate it when we don't get credit for it.

Today I broke a story about an elderly couple from Wakefield who had their handicap access ramp stolen from their home the other night. I just found out that the Boston TV stations got wind of it and it'll probably be on the news tonight.

Well, for the record, it was first reported on the Wakefield Daily Item's website (which is horribly outdated). Check it out! http://www.wakefielditem.com

Watertown's Town Council out of control

Is it just me, (I'm sure it's not) or does the Watertown Town Council seem out of control lately?

I just checked the Watertown Tab's online blog and caught an entry by reporter Jillian Fenimore explaining that Tuesday night's meeting was cut short so the Council could break off into Executive Session. What!?? And Conservation Commission just decided to show up for the meeting unannounced... oh, and many of the items were moved around the agenda. What the hell is going on??

As a newspaper reporter who's covered several town government meetings, I know.... It's bad enough to have to sit through these meetings for over 4 hours sometimes, but to call an executive session in the middle of it is just excruciating.

I have never sat through a Watertown Town Council meeting in person, and I haven't read the full article about what happened on Tuesday... But from an outsider's perspective, the Council seems extremely disorganized and divided.

Perhaps there are too many issues for a Town Council form of government to handle. or maybe one of the councilors... em hemm... has caused so much chaos in meetings past that nothing of value can ever get accomplished. I honestly don't know. But the citizens of Watertown should take a close look at the Council because these types of problems shouldn't be recurring.

EDIT: Could someone tell me if its normal for the Town Council to break off into executive session in the middle of a meeting. I've covered a few Amherst and Wakefield Board of Selectmen meetings and many school committee meetings and I've never see this happen. Thanks.

WHS evacuation proceedures have improved

Watertown High School was placed in a state of fear for the second time this school year. Today, students were evacuated after a threatening message about a bomb was scrawled on a bathroom wall. In September, the school was placed on lockdown after a gun was reportedly waved outside the building. The gun turned out to be a toy. Today's message was ultimately unsubstantiated, and police gave administrators the Okay to allow students back to class by 1 PM, two hours after the message was found.

School officials ought to be recognized for taking swift action to keep students safe in both of these instances. As soon as the threats were found, they called the appropriate authorities and put the proper proceedures in place.

This was a far cry from how administration handled similar threats between 1998 and 2002, when I was a student at WHS.

I'll never forget the memorable quote said in April of 1999 by both the headmaster at the time, Dr. James Cavanaugh and the police, that after a bomb threat was phoned in, "the entire school was searched in six minutes" before determining there was no threat. Both teachers and students vocally expressed outrage at the emergency assembly. Not only would it be impossible to thoroughly search the entire WHS building in six miutes, but many of us were in classrooms and did not see one police or fire official come into our classroom.

The next day, when ANOTHER bomb threat was phone into the school, we were evacuated immediately. I don't know exactly what got the school to change their emergency proceedures within 24 hours, but I suspect parents weren't too happy about the six-minute "search" the day before.

It should be noted that in both these cases, which were made in the two days following the Columbine School shooting, no bombs were ever found. WHS was one of hunderds, possibly thousands of schools around the United States receiving bomb threats that week.

It amazes me how many students cause this kind of chaos in this day and age. It's extremely unfortunate that one stupid act can cause legitimate, but ultimately unnecessary fear, in students who are just trying to go to class and teachers who are just trying to teach. I hope that whoever wrote the bomb threat today is found and punished to set an example that this kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable.

TIP YOUR WAITER

I've worked part-time as a server in a local restaurant for about two months now. It bothers me when people don't tip correctly. I don't think people realize that a waiter gets paid a mere $2 an hour.

I understand that a waiter is expected to get a higher tip for a good job. After all, the word "tips" is an acronym for "To Insure Proper Service" (I know, it should be "ensure").... But being a server is extremely stressful at times when it's busy and you're trying to make sure orders are correct and cooked on time.

Because we're paid $2 an hour, we depend on tips. Generally, a customer should tip the server 15-20% of the bill. THAT IS A MINIMUM BASELINE. If a server does a poor to fair job, a proper tip is 15%. If a server does a better-than-average job, at least 20% is in order. When a server does an outstanding job, they should get at least 25%.

When people grossly under tip me, it can mean one of three things: 1) I did a poor job; 2) They don't understand tipping ettiquite; 3) They're rude and don't care.

Today I had a table that definitely fell into Category Number Two. It was a family of five: three older adults (two of whom only spoke Spanish) and two teenagers. Everyone was extremely pleasant. Their food was out on time, and I refilled their drinks without being asked. They even got desert. When the bill came, ($58.50) the one English-speaking woman handed me $60 and politely asked for change. After they left, I found a $5 tip. That's roughly 8.5% of the bill. Now, since today was a slow day... I worked from 11am to 5pm... I only made $47 in tips. That's $7.83 an hour -- better than nothing, but on a busy night, I can make the equivalent of $20 an hour (Needless to say, I don't work at a top-of-the-line establishment). No, I'm not going hungry tonight, but when a large(r) party doens't tip me well, it greatly effects the amount of bread I take home. Today's incident certainly wasn't a worse-case scenario (I've had people not tip me at all).

The tipping system is different in other countries. In Ireland, for example, the waiters might get angry at you for tipping them. For some reason in the States we don't autmotaically include the cost of service in the bill.

One more thing, just because the bill is higher than you expected, it's not the waiter's fault. Even though it costs too much, the server depends on tips for a living. Sorry if you don't like the system, but that's the way it is.

Ok, that's enough for today's sermon.

The Outrage

I usually blog about local stuff, but I came across this article in the Globe today and it really got me steamed.

As our country's leaders continuously tout "peace," they've been the Number One supplier of weapons to third world countries! In many of these countries, the unregulated fashion in which these weapons are supplied has helped fuel civil wars. Who cares about world peace when the U.S. can make $8.1 billion, right?? Are we really that suprised?

The U.S. sells over 45 percent of the world's weapons -- raking in $8.1 billion in 2005. Coming in at a distant Number Two is Russia at 15% and England at 13%.

Recently, the U.S. sold $6.2 billion worth of new weapons deals to countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

On Oct. 26, a United Nations panel voted to study whether a new treaty might be possible to regulate the sale of conventional arms. The United States was the only country out of 166 to vote no, though China and Russia were among a handful of countries to abstain, the Globe reported.

Read the full article

Football leaves Middlesex League -- a done deal

It's official, according to my sources... Watertown Football is officially out of the Middlesex League as of the end of this season. The team will probably still play smaller ML teams, such as Winchester and Melrose, in the future. However, the games would not count toward league standings. Teams with a moderate number of players, such as Wakefield, might or might not play Watertown in the future. By comparison, Watertown has about 31 total players; whereas Wakefield has at least 70, not including all of the freshmen.