Students, officers urge safe prom night

TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - Students, officers and school officials are taking measures to make sure students are safe this prom season.

Posters in the halls of Harrison High School warn students going to prom that they may be tested for alcohol.
Despite the warning, prom committee member Morgan Howard said some may still make the wrong decision prom night.

"I am hoping I know most of them well enough to know they'll make the right decision. Of course I think some will drive and drink, maybe not both, hopefully not both," said Howard.

That's why school resource officer Greg Haltom isn't taking any chances, every student attending Harrison and McCutcheon's proms could undergo a random breathalyzer test.

"We implement the use of alcohol sensors which are either a yes or a no, it's either a red light, green light, they are given randomly," said Haltom.

Haltom said in his two years supervising dances he has yet to catch anyone drinking, but says that doesn't mean the deputies and officers will relax their efforts.

West Lafayette Police Sergeant Jason Philhower said the department will be running extra patrols in the month of April, but more recently officers are seeing a disturbing trend, abuse of prescription pills.

"Unfortunately, alcohol is still a big thing with the younger crowd, but there's a lot of things out there now-a-days, especially with prescription medications. Those are readily being abused, and those are out there a lot," said Philhower.

Howard said she's simply hoping prom will be a night to remember for all the right reasons.

"I would think they should probably look back at what our high school has gone through. We lost Claire Hockerman and Kate Baker, both great students, to drunk drivers. And I would think that everybody would want to keep those two people in our minds, and not make that decision that took both of their lives," said Howard.

Howard is referring to the accidents that took the lives of Claire and Nathan Hockerman in 2005 and the crash in 2008 that killed Kate Baker. Both Claire Hockerman and Kate Baker were students in the TSC system.