34 NJ students arrested with alcohol at post-prom party, report says

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. — Thirty-four students from a North Jersey high school were arrested last Friday and charged with underage drinking at a home in New York's Hudson County.

Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said a number of students ages 17 through 19 who attend Wallington Junior-Senior High School were found to be consuming alcoholic beverages after police were called about loud music coming from a home on Manorville Road.

Sinagra said that the students were charged under not only 65C of New York's alcoholic beverage control law 65C which prohibits the consumption and possession of alcohol by those under 21 but also the "social host" law of Ulster County. "If you have a party at your house and you provide alcohol to anybody whether they are underage or adults and they leave that party and they're involved in some kind of accident you're civilaly liable. And if they cause injury or death to another person you're criminally liable."

The home was rented to a group of students from the Bergen County high school, which has an enrollment of 537 in grades seven through 12.

Wallington school superintendent James J. Albro told New Jersey 101.5 the school is investigating the incident but had no additional comment.

Sinagra released the names of those who were not juveniles. New Jersey 101.5 is not publishing the names of suspects under the age of 18: