DRAPER, Utah (ABC4) – Thirty-seven young adults were detained and cited over the weekend for partying at Corner Canyon High School in Draper. Neighbors complained of loud music, explosions, and even drag racing.
The Draper Police Department released a video to ABC4 showing a large gathering at the high school the last weekend of March. In the video, you see an explosion and then the teenagers running away.
Lieutenant Pat Evens tells ABC4, “Watching the video after the fact, it was kind of disturbing. Like, somebody could have been seriously injured.”
The Lieutenant says these parties are getting out of hand.
“Obviously you’re going to have the good kids and then you’re going to have a few trouble makers there, but over time it’s gotten increasingly worse,” he says.
Last December, first responders went to the school for a student who was hurt while hanging out of a sunroof of a car.
Lt. Evans says, “People [were] throwing eggs at the car, and anyway the driver ended up running into a pole. This kid was seriously injured.”
On the first weekend of April, officers detained 37 teenagers. Police say only 12 of them were Draper residents. The young adults were cited for trespassing, reckless driving, and driving without a license.
“You know we are incredibly fortunate that we didn’t have serious, serious injuries, and accidents happen on that campus,” says Jeff Haney with the Canyons School District. ” We are really concerned about it. We are responding to the people who live right next to the school. We are also really concerned about the safety of the people who are congregating after-hours.”
Canyons School District is investing $25,000 to put up new gates around the school to prevent kids from coming in after hours.
“What we don’t want to see is students just move from one campus to another, so the message needs to be heard loud and clear that it’s not just at one high school that we will be paying attention to,” says Haney. “It could possibly result in disciplinary action at the school. So we are telling all the kids in the valley and we are asking parents to help us with this effort.”
Lt. Evans adds, “I think any of these kid’s parents if they were to drive through that parking lot some of those nights and see what was going on, they’d be scared. They’d be disturbed.”
Draper police officers spoken to by ABC4 say they don’t want to detain or arrest the teenagers, so they hope the message is received clearly.
