Lewiston’s superintendent of schools said Wednesday “we need to hold our student-athletes to the highest standards” after an incident in which high school hockey players partied outside the home of a school district employee.
Superintendent Bill Webster said “several” Lewiston High players were disciplined for drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana during a celebration in the hours after the boys’ hockey team won the Class A state championship game March 5.
Webster said neither head coach Jamie Belleau nor junior varsity coach Ben McDonough is the school district employee in question, but declined to identify the individual.
“I view it as a personnel matter,” he said, “and anything that’s a personnel matter is considered confidential.”
There were no suspensions from school, but each player faces a 14-day suspension from the spring sport season, according to Webster and Shawn Chabot, the Lewiston High principal.
Webster said he is not aware of any non-hockey player involved in the incident but declined to say whether any of the disciplined players are seniors.
He acknowledged the policy regarding substance abuse lacks clarity in cases of students who may not be playing another sport or who have exhausted their eligibility.
“I do think we need to take a fresh look at our policies,” Webster said, “because I believe we need to hold our student-athletes to the highest standards and I want to make sure our policies do that.”
He said the school committee will take a closer look at the athletic participation form in hopes of strengthening it.
“I want to make sure that we’re doing our best to both encourage appropriate behavior,” he said, “and also to have … consequences in case our expectations are not met.”
Lieutenant Mark Cornelio, public information official for the Lewiston Police Department, said there was no mention in the department’s dispatch logs for a response to a party during a five-hour stretch beginning at 10 p.m. on March 5.
Webster said he was tipped off to the incident. “I had contacts that suggested that this was something that needed to be looked at,” he said.
Webster told the Lewiston Sun Journal on Tuesday that the school district employee was not aware of the alcohol and marijuana use but that “does not excuse that it took place.”
On Wednesday, Webster added: “Anything that was done inappropriate that we are aware of occurred outside the house.”
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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