Sober Grad Nite officials were stunned last week when the
Hollister Police Department backed out of attending the event, with
just two weeks before San Benito High School graduation.
Sober Grad Nite officials were stunned last week when the Hollister Police Department backed out of attending the event, with just two weeks before San Benito High School graduation.
The police department said it doesn’t have the resources to staff the event, but the Grad Nite Committee said it wasn’t given a reason why HPD was pulling out from volunteering.
“We’re really trying to change the whole process of our event, making sure it’s a truly sober grad night and we were really hoping for the police department’s support with that,” Grad Nite Security Chair Stephani Garino said.
The committee has been working and holding weekly meetings since October, and Garino said the parents can’t figure out why the police department would do this.
“They didn’t even give a reason,” she said. “This comes as a huge shock, considering all the other agencies that are coming forward and helping.”
Sgt. Ray Wood of the Hollister Police Department said the department had to back out because the staff is strapped.
“We are completely stretched right now,” he said. “With six guys on the injured list we just don’t have the people to provide for the event.”
Although the police department won’t be at the event, Wood did say it would be making special patrols around SBHS that night.
The San Benito County Sheriff’s Department along with California Highway Patrol will greet students as they arrive and keep the peace, and the Red Cross will have a makeshift clinic assembled in an athletics room near the gym in case anyone gets hurt or tries to show up intoxicated. If students do arrive under the influence, they’ll be escorted to the Red Cross room where their parents will be called to pick them up.
“With the other two agencies there it sounds like they’ve got plenty of people to keep things under control,” Wood said.
San Benito High School sits on both city and county land, which for years has caused the school to rely on both the police department and the sheriff’s department for assistance. The area of campus on the south side of Nash Road, where Grad Nite will be held, is under county jurisdiction, and the main campus is under city jurisdiction. Superintendent Jean Burns Slater said when there is an incident on campus, who administration calls for help depends on where it happens.
“Mattson Gym is on the county side so when we have a problem with a student there we call the sheriff’s department,” she said.
Regardless of which side of the land the event sits on, Garino said she’s unhappy about the lack of support.
“We are a community and it’s frustrating that they’re not helping us keep the streets safe,” she said.
Wood said the police department will make every effort to keep the streets safe, looking for drunk drivers and partiers who don’t attend Grad Nite.
“We’ll be out in full force that night,” he said. “We would definitely like to be at Grad Nite if we could. It affects the whole community and some of us are parents too.”
The police that have volunteered in previous years have been off duty. For the past few years, SBHS Sober Grad Nite has been held at the Elks Lodge and this is its first year back at SBHS.
