PORT ANGELES — An end-of-the-school-year dance for middle school students ended suddenly on Saturday night after rumors spread of students’ drinks being “spiked.”
As of Tuesday, the rumors remained unsubstantiated. No one has been reported treated after the dance was cut short.
“We haven’t found any evidence that anybody’s drinks were spiked with anything,” said Chief Brian Smith, who added that additional information could prompt more investigation.
As of Tuesday, the police were investigating a second-or third-hand report of a possible assault that might or might not have been connected with the dance, Smith said.
The dance was hosted by Port Angeles DeMolay at the Port Angeles Masonic Lodge on Lincoln Street on Saturday.
Police said that officers got involved when hundreds of students between 11 and 14 years old filed out of the Masonic Lodge onto the sidewalk and into Lincoln Street.
The numbers of students prompted officers to shut down Lincoln Street at about 10 p.m. for about a half an hour to protect the students and allow emergency vehicles access if needed.
The road was reopened again once most of the young people had been picked up by their parents.
According to the report, several of the girls had said that their drinks had been “spiked” with an unspecified substance.
“We were told that there was no punch and that the dance was serving individual beverages in cans,” Smith said.
Port Angeles Fire and Olympic Ambulance established a triage area on Seventh and Lincoln streets for anyone who needed or wanted to be evaluated, but ultimately, no one appeared for evaluation, no one appeared to be under the influence of anything and no one was taken to a hospital.
However, rumors persisted to the point where Olympic Medical Center asked PAPD if it needed to prepare for an influx of patients related to the alleged drink spiking.
OMC was advised to stand down, Smith said.
There were also rumors that a student that been taken into custody in relation to this incident, but that turned out to be false as well.
“At one point, an adult approached a PAPD supervisor and advised that they heard a kid was in the back of a police car. This was not true. There were never any kids detained or put in the back of cars,” Smith said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact PAPD at 360-452-4545.
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Reporter Ken Park can be reached at [email protected].
