- Jan 7, 2002
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The judge had chastised nine students caught drinking at a Troy high school prom last spring. That would be the end of it, he figured.
It was, until Judge Michael Martone stumbled across a Web site weeks after the students had been sentenced to probation. Leering back at him from his computer screen were some of the same students from Troy Athens High School, now in college.
On the site, they were giving him the finger. They were toasting him with cups of beer and chugging shots of Jagermeister liqueur. They were posing with beer cans stacked almost to the ceiling, and retching into toilets at Michigan State University.
The Web site's headline said: "F U Martone. ... Night after court/ Hahaaa."
Martone was astonished.
The girls -- two of whom were honor students -- were from a top high school known for its drinking-prevention programs and where Martone had addressed the student body just days before the prom.
About seven months later, a few sips of booze before a prom had turned into a traumatizing ordeal for three families, led to jail sentences for three girls and left Martone, a nationally recognized crusader against teen drinking, wondering, "Why didn't I get through to these kids?"
Martone, noting that 3,000 underage drinkers die each year from alcohol-related deaths, said he reacted the only way he could. But some parents questioned whether his actions were justice, or overkill.
Ultimately, it was the students' brazen use of the Internet that would be the tipping point.
Prom night turns sour
On a spring evening last May, minutes before the prom, limousines lined up in a park in Troy where parents snapped photos of their daughters in gowns and sons in tuxedos. Among them was senior Mary Meerschaert, soon to be listed under summa cum laude at the school's honor ceremony.
After the photos, Meerschaert climbed into a white Hummer limo with 17 friends, including her soccer teammate Rachel Stesney and Amanda Senopole, whose grade point average was just a fraction lower than Meerschaert's.
As the limo pulled away, Meerschaert said she realized: "Four of the kids had drank before the pictures and no one knew. We got in the limo and they were wasted.
"And then they started taking out bottles. ... There was a flask or two, and another bottle. It was just being passed around. ... Most of us just sipped. I think it was Southern Comfort," she said this month.
When the limo arrived at the prom, pulling up to Petruzzello's Banquet Hall in Troy, one girl staggered into the parking lot. School officials quickly pulled her aside for questioning.
Meerschaert and the others thought they were safe.
"We sat down and started eating dinner," she said. "After 15 minutes, our adviser came up to us and said, 'We want to see you in the hall.' They had our whole limo out there."
Police administered breath tests. Meerschaert was one of nine students ticketed for drinking, those involved said.
"I blew a .02," she said -- the minimum needed for a violation under Michigan's zero-tolerance rule for minors. She said one officer offered her a break.
"He said, 'I'll give you another test later so that you can be under .02.' But our principal said no, 'It's school policy. We have to call your parents.' "
Honor status stripped
The next day, Meerschaert's parents were shocked to get an e-mail from the school. Their daughter had been suspended for five days, along with eight others, her family said.
That was the first school sanction. Meerschaert said she and Stesney also were suspended from the soccer team for two weeks, then allowed back for the season's final few games -- but only after they wrote apologies to their teammates and the team voted to bring them back. Stesney could no longer be team captain.
Added to that punishment, Meerschaert and another friend, Amanda Senopole, were banned from wearing the decorative white stole of the National Honor Society over their graduation gowns.
Meerschaert's mother, Polly Meerschaert, said she e-mailed the school and asked to appeal. But a panel of teachers held firm. So the Meerchaerts decided to yank their daughter from all graduation functions.
Troy Athens Principal Catherine Cost allowed a compromise.
"The concession was that Mary could have her stole just to take home, so that we could take her picture in her full cap and gown. But she had to turn it back in and she could not wear it across the stage at Masonic Temple," said Polly Meerschaert.
"I tried to make a teachable moment out of this -- with the school system, with the judge," Polly Meerschaert said last week. "But that didn't happen. These people were only interested in punishment." .
The girls' next punishment would be administered in a courtroom.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006601270321
It was, until Judge Michael Martone stumbled across a Web site weeks after the students had been sentenced to probation. Leering back at him from his computer screen were some of the same students from Troy Athens High School, now in college.
On the site, they were giving him the finger. They were toasting him with cups of beer and chugging shots of Jagermeister liqueur. They were posing with beer cans stacked almost to the ceiling, and retching into toilets at Michigan State University.
The Web site's headline said: "F U Martone. ... Night after court/ Hahaaa."
Martone was astonished.
The girls -- two of whom were honor students -- were from a top high school known for its drinking-prevention programs and where Martone had addressed the student body just days before the prom.
About seven months later, a few sips of booze before a prom had turned into a traumatizing ordeal for three families, led to jail sentences for three girls and left Martone, a nationally recognized crusader against teen drinking, wondering, "Why didn't I get through to these kids?"
Martone, noting that 3,000 underage drinkers die each year from alcohol-related deaths, said he reacted the only way he could. But some parents questioned whether his actions were justice, or overkill.
Ultimately, it was the students' brazen use of the Internet that would be the tipping point.
Prom night turns sour
On a spring evening last May, minutes before the prom, limousines lined up in a park in Troy where parents snapped photos of their daughters in gowns and sons in tuxedos. Among them was senior Mary Meerschaert, soon to be listed under summa cum laude at the school's honor ceremony.
After the photos, Meerschaert climbed into a white Hummer limo with 17 friends, including her soccer teammate Rachel Stesney and Amanda Senopole, whose grade point average was just a fraction lower than Meerschaert's.
As the limo pulled away, Meerschaert said she realized: "Four of the kids had drank before the pictures and no one knew. We got in the limo and they were wasted.
"And then they started taking out bottles. ... There was a flask or two, and another bottle. It was just being passed around. ... Most of us just sipped. I think it was Southern Comfort," she said this month.
When the limo arrived at the prom, pulling up to Petruzzello's Banquet Hall in Troy, one girl staggered into the parking lot. School officials quickly pulled her aside for questioning.
Meerschaert and the others thought they were safe.
"We sat down and started eating dinner," she said. "After 15 minutes, our adviser came up to us and said, 'We want to see you in the hall.' They had our whole limo out there."
Police administered breath tests. Meerschaert was one of nine students ticketed for drinking, those involved said.
"I blew a .02," she said -- the minimum needed for a violation under Michigan's zero-tolerance rule for minors. She said one officer offered her a break.
"He said, 'I'll give you another test later so that you can be under .02.' But our principal said no, 'It's school policy. We have to call your parents.' "
Honor status stripped
The next day, Meerschaert's parents were shocked to get an e-mail from the school. Their daughter had been suspended for five days, along with eight others, her family said.
That was the first school sanction. Meerschaert said she and Stesney also were suspended from the soccer team for two weeks, then allowed back for the season's final few games -- but only after they wrote apologies to their teammates and the team voted to bring them back. Stesney could no longer be team captain.
Added to that punishment, Meerschaert and another friend, Amanda Senopole, were banned from wearing the decorative white stole of the National Honor Society over their graduation gowns.
Meerschaert's mother, Polly Meerschaert, said she e-mailed the school and asked to appeal. But a panel of teachers held firm. So the Meerchaerts decided to yank their daughter from all graduation functions.
Troy Athens Principal Catherine Cost allowed a compromise.
"The concession was that Mary could have her stole just to take home, so that we could take her picture in her full cap and gown. But she had to turn it back in and she could not wear it across the stage at Masonic Temple," said Polly Meerschaert.
"I tried to make a teachable moment out of this -- with the school system, with the judge," Polly Meerschaert said last week. "But that didn't happen. These people were only interested in punishment." .
The girls' next punishment would be administered in a courtroom.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006601270321
Just because they didn't get in a car YET doesn't mean they weren't going to.
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