Record-High Arrests at PSU “State Patty’s Day” Weekend
Late last week, Genaro Armas of the Associated Press introduced his readers to a recent tradition at Penn State University: “State Patty’s Day,” an unofficial holiday which takes place before St. Patrick’s Day. After its creation in 2007, the event quickly became infamous for heavy drinking, and this year, University administrators and local officials tried to encourage more responsible behavior: “Police, businesses and student leaders are trying to crack down this year on the event they say is just an excuse for a day of excessive drinking and destructive behavior.”
This week, we learned via the US News “Paper Trail” blog and the Daily Collegian that these pleas went largely unheeded, and the weekend saw a record number of arrests:
“The Daily Collegian reports that 160 partyers were arrested this past weekend. That’s more arrests than were made during the previous two State Patty’s Day weekends combined. Must have been a big weekend in State College.
‘The trend seems to be going the wrong way,’ State College Police Capt. Dana Leonard tells the Daily Collegian. ‘Everything is upward trending in the past three years–calls are up, alcohol overdoses are double. It’s a disturbing three-year trend.’”
Do students on your campus host similar unofficial holiday events that are characterized by heavy drinking? Let us know in the comments.