Pitt alcohol policy keeps some from calling cops

At a South Oakland apartment party last year, a Pitt student with eyes closed vomited repeatedly… At a South Oakland apartment party last year, a Pitt student with eyes closed vomited repeatedly in a kitchen garbage can. He wouldn’t or couldn’t talk, and his limbs were so limp that he couldn’t clutch the sides of the bin.

“We can’t call the police. He wants to be a teacher,” his friend said.

Curious strangers, dressed in Halloween costumes, gathered around asking questions and offering unsolicited advice.

“Don’t let him lie down.”

“Is he drinking water?”

“If he’s puking, he’ll be fine.”

Instead of calling for help, the friends stayed with the intoxicated student throughout the night.

Like many students who get sick while drinking underage, the group didn’t seek medical attention because they feared they would receive citations.

Whereas there are a few places where an intoxicated Pitt student could have a run-in with a campus police officer, Pitt’s zero-tolerance alcohol policy leaves questions about whether students would be cited while seeking medical assistance.

The elephant in the room

Pitt police spokesman Ron Bennett said UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Oakland contracts Pitt police officers to maintain order in the emergency room on Friday and Saturday nights. He said their job is not to watch for Pitt students or spot underage drinkers, and that people who receive alcohol-related citations generally don’t get them at the hospital.

“If, say, we’re out on the street and we run into a person who is intoxicated, they get taken to the emergency room. If they go to the ER, the citation goes with them,” Bennett said.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said in an e-mail that Pitt police officers aren’t stationed in UPMC Presbyterian for the “sole purpose of finding underage drinkers.”

He said Pitt police are responsible for using their own discretion if they’re involved in the transport of intoxicated underage students.

“Pennsylvania law is enforced for underage students who are found intoxicated just as it would be for other underage individuals found drinking in Pitt’s jurisdiction,” he said.

Pitt’s Judicial Board also hears cases when students violate the Student Code of Conduct by drinking underage. The Judicial Board may impose a $75 fine for the first offense and $125 for the second offense.

Students who violate the alcohol policy on or off campus also have to complete the four-week Personal Education, Assistance & Referral class and will have a letter sent home to their parents or guardians.

Calling 911 instead of Pitt police might not keep the police or the University out of the loop. Bennett said that police often arrive with emergency medical services to record the incident.

Many schools, like Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, have amnesty policies so students won’t worry about receiving an underage drinking citation when seeking medical assistance from their universities.

CMU’s Student Health Services website says, “Students for whom medical assistance is summoned for alcohol intoxication will be granted amnesty from university administrative disciplinary action and University Police action.”

The policy also grants amnesty to those who call the university police or EMS or otherwise help the intoxicated student before medics arrive.

Many students, however, still prefer not to involve the police or don’t even consider the police as an option.

Be a friend

In Schenley Plaza Saturday evening, Pitt junior Erik Haupt rubs his sore knees and chats with his friend Julie Kepics about the dance party he attended the night before. Though he didn’t encounter any students suffering from alcohol poisoning at that party, he’s helped them before.

“I feel like everyone has always been like, ‘I don’t know how to get them home.’ It was always a group effort. I’ve had friend-of-friends ask me to let a friend crash on the couch when I lived on Semple,” he said.

Haupt said sometimes those friends of friends didn’t want to make the trek to upper campus or they thought the campus security guard would call the Pitt police.

Calling the police would be a “hassle,” he said. He’s never heard someone suggest calling the police as a solution.

Kepics, who is also a junior, agreed.

“As dumb as it seems, it’s never my first instinct when in trouble to call the cops. It’s to call a friend,” she said.

Kepics added that she’s more likely to call the police for someone she doesn’t know well, but she is more likely to stay up and help her closer friends.

“You are making a huge decision for someone else,” Kepics said, adding that on top of potentially getting in trouble with the law, the University and parents, there are emergency room and ambulance fees to consider as well.

She and Haupt agreed that they would call the police if they thought a friend’s life was at risk.

Two years ago, Pitt started a three-points campaign to teach students about how to confront situations in which friends might be suffering from alcohol poisoning. At orientation, Pitt students learn to “be a friend, know the signs and call for help.”

Students also take a mandatory online Alcohol-Wise training program.

These programs teach students that they shouldn’t be making the judgment if a friend needs medical attention or not: Director of Residence Life Shawn Brooks said when resident assistants see an intoxicated student, they are trained to call the campus police immediately.

“I tell my RAs that I don’t want you to be responsible for another life,” Brooks said.

Resident assistants are trained to write up reports of underage alcohol consumption and possession.

The baby on the church doorstep

To avoid the police, Officer Bennett said people who drink underage sometimes drop off their friends at the hospital.

“We try to discourage [leaving friends alone], but we appreciate them taking the person to the hospital,” he said.

Though some still worry about the officers at the hospital, many people believe the hospital to be a type of sanctuary. Haupt has heard these sort of stories passed down the vine.

“It’s like putting a baby on a church doorstep,” Haupt said. “But, I’d be afraid of the guy getting energy and stumbling away.”

Abandoning someone on the hospital’s doorstep might create new problems, though.

Dr. Donald Yealy, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Pitt, said there have been issues when the hospital is ready to discharge someone who was admitted for alcohol poisoning.

Admitted patients can leave the hospital when they’re stable, even if all of the alcohol hasn’t metabolized, Yealy said. But, the hospital needs to make sure the person has someone to take him home and that the hospital can follow up if the person has lacerations or other wounds.

“[The hospital] would only reach out to Pitt if no one can take them home,” he said.

Yealy said hospital workers don’t call the police to report underage drinkers.

“It’s not our job nor is it our desire to have that job,” he said.

The hospital only contacts a patient’s parents if he’s a minor.

Kenyon Bonner, director of Student Life and an Alcohol Task Force member, said Pitt’s judicial process would consider if a person was cited while trying to help a friend. He couldn’t speak of any outcomes of judicial cases.

Brooks said hearing officers review the circumstances of an incident report before assigning charges.

Under Pitt’s Student Code of Conduct, those who are “knowingly present” as someone violates Pitt’s alcohol policy will be subject to disciplinary action.

When a student chooses to break the law and drink underage, Brooks said, he should not jeopardize others by putting them in a difficult situation.

“The more responsibility a person takes, the more liability the person takes if something turns south,” he said. “Turn it over to the professionals.”