HERMON, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The Bangor School Department is investigating allegations that students were drinking alcohol this past weekend in a limousine outside of a dance in Hermon. One of the students in that limo is also facing a host of other legal troubles after he was arrested on charges that he assaulted and injured a Penobscot County sheriffs deputy.
Deputies responded to the Morgan Hill Event Center in Hermon Sunday night after receiving a call that a number of students had showed up to the dance in a rented limousine full of alcohol. It was the limo driver who called authorites. According to Chief Deputy Troy Morton, one of those students, 18-year-old Tyler Omlor assaulted and injured Deputy Peter Garland as the deputy tried to remove him from the limo.
Morton said deputies called parents of several other teens and had their parents come and pick them up. Omlor, meanwhile was arrested and taken to Penobscot County Jail where he was charged with assault, disorderly conduct, minor possession of alcohol and possession of a usable amount of marijuana.
Hymie Gulak, the owner of Morgan Hill Event Center, said the entire incident happened outside of the facility. He said the event was well chaperoned and he pointed out that any alcohol inside the center is kept under lock and key if there are under 21 events.
"We take this sort of thing very seriously, and this incident shows that the procedures we have in place work," he said.
Deputy Garland did suffer an injury to his knee and remained in the hosptial as of early Tuesday evening. Omlor is free on one thousand dollars bail. The Bangor School Department is investigating to see if any students involved in athletics or extra curricular activities were drinking alcohol or using drugs. Since the dance was not a school sanctioned event, and the allegations of underage drinking occurred off of school property, only students involved in athletics or other extra curricular activities face any disciplinary measures because they sign a pledge not to use alcohol or drugs as part of the student code of conduct.
According to School Superintendent Betsy Webb, students involved in co-curricular or extra-curricular activities face a higher set of standards because participation in those activities is considered a privilege.
More than two dozen students were charged with illegal possession of alcohol during a party last month at a camp in Lincoln. Many were student athletes who were suspended from their sports or activites for two weeks.
"It's a complex societal issue, and we are concerned about all students," Webb said. She expects the investigation to be complete on Wednesday.