Nine students were given citations at the beach last Saturday night in what was an unusually active weekend for student beach residents. FUSA President Karen Donoghue, ’03, called police activity “ridiculous.”
Donoghue, who said police were “going to far,” met with Vice President of Student Services Bill Schimpf on Monday. During that meeting, Schimpf told her that students were given tickets for crossing a road near the beach where there is no crosswalk, and also students were threatened with tickets for standing while waiting for cabs.
According to Donoghue, Stephanie Savary, ’04, FUSA’s external executive assistant, is contacting Fairfield First Selectman Ken Flatto to demand an explanation for police activity in the beach area.
“I think that the students were treatly unfairly and I would like to know more reasons why this occurred,” said Savary. “When I speak to Flatto, I intend to find out as much information as possible.”
Donoghue said that it is important for students to be able to get cabs from the beach in order to prevent drunk driving.
“It could have been a fluke weekend,” Donoghue said. “I give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but if something like this happens against then action needs to be taken.”
According to Duane Melzer, coordinator of off-campus students, of the nine students cited, two were arrested, one for breach of peace and the other for trespassing, interfering with a police officers and creating a public disturbance.”Both students were being loud and uncooperative,” said Melzer of the students who were arrested. “Alcohol was a factor.”
Alisha Mai, ’03 thought the police were unfairly targeting students. “They threatened us…[with] being arrested,” she said. “I walked out the door at the bar and they told me they were going to arrest us. I went to stand at the taxi corner and they said I was trespassing. So we almost had to walk home, but the cops followed us the entire way up the road.”
Melzer was quick to point out that not all students at the beach were being uncooperative.
“There were a lot of people in the beach area and conversely a lot of police and a higher [number] of tickets. It was an unusual night.”
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