By Pepper Fisher
(This story has been updated to include a report of the incident from Police Chief Brian Smith)
PORT ANGELES – A traditionally peaceful school graduation event for sixth, seventh and eighth graders, hosted by the Port Angeles DeMolay, was shut down early Saturday night because a few kids attended that apparently didn’t want to follow the rules.
Rumors are swirling on social media about what happened, partly because a large number of police and first responder units closed down Lincoln Street in front of the Masonic Lodge for a time to maintain the safety of the young people coming out of the building.
We don’t have many answers, but we did speak with one of the organizers, who says the police are still looking into who did what, and he was not at liberty to say too much as of Monday afternoon. Basically, he says a few kids showed up that ruined it for everybody.
“Like I said, just a few bad actors that decided to ruin it for everybody. And unfortunately, after the two-hour mark, the way things were headed, we felt it was the better safety decision to end the dance to prevent anything else from happening, from things from getting worse, and we directed the kids to start calling their parents. And basically the dance was over, unfortunately. So we thought that was the better safety move at that time.”
Did some older kids sneak in? Was there alcohol involved?
“The dance is for sixth, seventh, eighth grade. As far as we know, everybody fell within that age range. Not to say somebody couldn’t sneak in, but we have members who are in high school, as well. And they never saw any high schoolers amongst the crowd.”
DeMolay has been successfully hosting the youth dances twice-a-year for over a decade, but our spokesman says this year they began hearing about some issues about 2 hours into the event and one of them thought it would be a good idea to flag down a police officer. He says the officer decided to call in paramedics to make sure everyone was okay, and that led to the larger response.
Below is the report of the incident from Police Chief Brian Smith that we received Tuesday morning.
On 06/18/22 at around 1000 PM a PAPD Sgt was flagged down near the Masonic Temple. There was a dance for middle school-age kids happening at that location. Officers were subsequently told that organizers ended it early due to a concern that someone may have “spiked drinks”.
What ensued prior to the PAPD Sgt’s arrival was what appeared to be several hundred kids being moved out of the building, onto the sidewalk and into Lincoln Street. Several girls reported that they thought their drinks were spiked. Officers did not see any signs of intoxication. Because of the crowd, PAPD Officers closed down Lincoln Street for about 20-30 minutes. PA Fire with assistance from Olympic Ambulance set up a triage station at the corner of 7th and Lincoln for anyone who needed or wanted to get evaluated. Ultimately, it was reported to Officers that no one who was contacted appeared to be under the influence. There were no patients transported to the hospital. At one point, an adult approached a PAPD Supervisor and advised that they heard a kid was in the back of a police car. This was not true. There were never any kids detained or put in the back of cars. Once the bulk of the kids had been picked up by parents, Officers re-opened Lincoln St.
Rumors persisted, and as late as midnight there was a call from OMC inquiring if they needed to prepare for an influx of patients related to a mass drink-spiking. They were advised that they could stand down. Officers are investigating a second hand report of an assault. Anyone with additional information on the incident that might be relevant to Police are asked to call 360 452 4545 and ask to speak to an officer.