About 75 high school students were forced to get urine tests under threat of suspension after a beer can was discovered at a high school football game.
The empty can rolled from underneath the student bleachers at Randolph High School’s season opener on Friday and landed at the feet of administrators in Randolph, New Jersey.
Upon investigation, several other containers of alcohol were found in the bleachers at the public school, and several students in the section were ‘visibly intoxicated’, according to district superintendent Jennifer A. Fano.
‘Our head of security and administrators reported that the student fan section of bleachers, where the open container was found, also smelled very strongly of alcohol,’ Fano said in a statement.
About 75 students were ordered to get tested for alcohol after an empty beer can rolled out of the bleachers at a high school football game at this stadium in New Jersey
During the game, some students came forward with photos and video posted to social media showing their classmates consuming alcohol at a house party several hours before the game, the superintendent said.
The section of the bleachers in question was cleared out before the game started, and the students were led into the school and separated into classrooms by bleacher row while their parents were called to pick them up.
Parents were told they had two hours to get their children tested for alcohol, prompting a mad scramble to area hospitals for testing services.
In the end, fewer than five students tested positive for alcohol.
Students who didn’t get tested would be considered to have tested positive and faced suspension, parents were told.
‘Parents were FUMING at this, because they had to take their child to get blood work done at 10 o’clock at night,’ wrote Randolph’s 2018 Class President Nate Pangaro in a public Facebook post.
According to Fano, the testing form students were given required a urinalysis, but many students instead received a blood test at the discretion of the hospital staff.
Everyone who tested negative will be reimbursed for any costs for the tests, per the district’s policy, Fano said.
‘I hope that in the end you can understand why we took the action that we did,’ Fano said. ‘Thankfully, everyone arrived home safely from the game, so I would rather be criticized for what we did, than what we did not do that evening.’
The Randolph Rams went on to defeat the Livingston Lancers 18 to 15 in the football game.