David Gayle, a 19-year-old Virginia Tech student, died in September when he fell while trying to climb from a balcony to an apartment roof while intoxicated. Nineteen-year-old Laura Treanor, a sophomore at George Washington University, died from alcohol poisoning in 2009. And in 2002, Daniel Reardon, 19, died a week after going into a whiskey-induced coma during a pledging event at a University of Maryland fraternity.
The tragic consequences of heavy drinking have been felt at several local colleges. But serious legal consequences for students who binge drink and use drugs are rare.
| A culture of drinking | ||||
| At many campus events, drinking is a key activity — whether students are of-age or not. Here are a few: Springfest at James Madison University: The annual outside gathering at the central Virginia school attracts thousands of partiers and erupted in riots last year when people began throwing beer bottles and cans. | ||||
| Maryland-Duke basketball: The contests draw big crowds around College Park, and a Maryland win got out of hand last when alcohol-fueled students poured into the streets to celebrate. | ||||
| Football tailgates: The pre-game parties give students reason to start drinking early in the day. Near some schools, such as Virginia Tech, police step up patrols at tailgating hot spots on game day. | ||||
| Violations in 2009 | ||||
| School | Alcohol arrests | Alcohol referrals | Drug arrests | Drug referrals |
| American | 0 | 382 | 2 | 58 |
| Catholic | 0 | 415 | 0 | 10 |
| George Mason | 185 | 163 | 82 | 33 |
| George Washington | 0 | 246 | 10 | 180 |
| Georgetown | 0 | 347 | 0 | 49 |
| Howard | 2 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| U.Md. | 168 | 943 | 99 | 118 |
| U.Va. | 76 | 8 | 43 | 31 |
| Virginia Tech | 259 | 637 | 39 | 21 |
| Source: Campus security reports | ||||
Thousands of students are cited every year for liquor and drug law violations at universities around the Washington region. But only a handful — and at some colleges, none at all — face criminal charges. Instead, they’re sent through a campus judicial system, where penalties can range from a phone call to parents to expulsion.
That system is more of a deterrent than the fines or community service most would get in criminal court, universities say. But some crime experts say the system essentially legalizes underage drinking and drug use on campuses.
Students who break drug and alcohol laws are “fully aware that, for the most part, nothing is going to happen to them,” said Rafik Mohamed, a Clayton State University criminology professor and former investigator for the District’s Public Defender Service.
Lucy Westcott, a 20-year-old junior at GW, said she has seen many people hospitalized after consuming too much alcohol, but doesn’t know anyone who has gotten in legal trouble for underage drinking or giving booze to minors. No GW students were arrested on campus for liquor law violations in 2009, and 10 were charged with drug crimes. But 246 were cited in the campus judicial system for alcohol and 180 were cited for drugs.
“People just assume that because it’s college, they can do it,” Westcott said.
Thirty-six percent of college students nationwide reported using an illegal drug in the past year, according to a November report by University of Michigan researchers, and 79.4 percent reported consuming alcohol.
Universities say campus sanctions work.
“Students are more concerned about being referred to the office of student conduct than being referred to the courts,” said Edward Spencer, vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech.
A spokeswoman for Georgetown University, which recorded no alcohol or drug arrests in 2009, but 347 alcohol and 49 drug referrals, wrote in an e-mail that the school takes such issues “very seriously” as “violations of the student code of conduct.” Like many colleges, Georgetown prohibits kegs in some housing and requires students to register parties where alcohol is served. And schools with Greek systems often impose those regulations on fraternities and sororities.
For such violations, campus authorities have discretion over whether to bring in other law enforcement, even if a law is also broken, Mohamed said.
“We don’t know what happens in the universities,” said Anita LaRue, an assistant U.S. attorney in D.C. “All we do is handle the cases they bring to us.”
Some schools bring more cases than others. George Mason University recorded 185 liquor law and 82 drug arrests in 2009, while 163 students received alcohol referrals and 33 got drug citations.
“We’re happy to have the referral option, but we go the harder route in other instances,” GMU Police Chief Michael Lynch said. “We don’t believe we’re harming anybody’s life by enforcing the law.”
