Underage Drinking Arrests At Lehigh U.

Lehigh Valley Live (09/13/2017)
About 80 underage drinking arrests at Lehigh in 3 weeksPolice charged 20 Lehigh University students with underage drinking last weekend, bringing the total arrests this year up to around 80...Five Lehigh students had to be hospitalized the weekend of Sept. 9-10 with dangerously high alcohol levels, according to Lehigh police Chief Edward Shupp. Their blood-alcohol contents were around 0.26 to 0.29, which is more than three times the legal limit to drive...Bethlehem police charged 56 people with underage drinking over the weekend of Sept. 2-3, many of whom were in two homes near campus.
Some may look upon this as a negative story regarding Lehigh University. I don't see it that way. They are doing the right thing. Kudos to the university for taking on this problem. I see few other colleges, universities or police departments meeting the challenge. If so, I'm not hearing about it publicly. Both the police and university should be commended for their efforts. Few others seem willing to admit they have a problem within their midst.

Part of educators' responsibility should be to teach students how important it is to be accountable for their actions. A skill they will need both in future employment as well as becoming better citizens. The actions being taken by the university in cooperation with the Bethlehem police contribute towards meeting such goals. When police or colleges let students slide--like they do in too many other communities--they're not doing students a service.

My attitude is this. There nothing wrong with drinking and whooping it up a bit. BUT getting snockered for four years is not why they are suppose to be there. Someone(s) who instigates and continually encourages such by their own behavior needs to be dealt with. This can be accomplished by notifying parents, arrest and expulsion if necessary.

The movie "Animal House" might have been funny as hell, but there's nothing funny about being stupid every week for four years.

This kind of behavior encourages other students who obviously can't think for themselves.




We seen this time and again. It's only a matter of time until another student gets killed somewhere this year. I seen these kind of parties myself-50 or a 100 kids raising hell partying it up in a single house. My fear is nothing will be done until a floor collapses, some kid dies or there is a fire revelers can't escape. In each of these campus security (these weren't Lehigh U parties) came escorted by the police chuckling it off as students (who knows if they all were) had been "asked" to leave. No one was carded. You damn well know most wouldn't be 21 till their 3rd or 4th year. Who's kidding who? Sometimes the worse that happened they were issued a noise citation. Hey what mom and pop don't know, right? Talk about a lawsuit just waiting to happen!

Once again-I couldn't be more supportive of Lehigh University and the Bethlehem police for what they are initiating. Both are doing a job that many other education institutions try to sweep under the carpet.

They are setting a good example. Question is--will others follow?