Breathalyzer on Duty : Booze Gets No Invitation to School Prom

One guest at the Arcadia High School prom won’t have a date. But it may attract much of the attention.

School chaperones will bring a police-style Breathalyzer to the annual formal dance next month, and they intend to test students who appear to have violated the school’s no-drinking rule.

Arcadia High School officials, whose action follows similar moves by other schools, say they hope to cut down on drinking--and driving--by the 1,200 students expected to attend the prom.

“If we can save one life, it’s worth it,” said Elbert Souders, superintendent of the Arcadia Unified School District. And if past experience holds, the Breathalyzer may have an even more obvious side effect.

Two years ago, officials at Loara High School in Anaheim bought a similar machine that measures whether students are sober, have been drinking, or are fully intoxicated.

Loara’s activities director, Joe Smith, said the machine is brought to most student activities, including dances and football games. He has never had to use it.

“The ominous presence of it lying on the table has been enough,” he said. “It has reduced the incidence of disciplinary procedures against (drinking) students to zero.”

Several other high schools, including three in the South Bay area, also have used alcohol-level machines in recent years. All report success.

Arcadia officials climbed aboard the bandwagon when they read about school Breathalyzer use in a state Department of Justice handbook. After gaining approval from the Los Angeles County counsel’s office, Principal Richard Cordano talked it over with Parent Alert--a school support group--and its members agreed to buy a machine for the school. The district’s board of trustees approved the machine’s use last week.

40 Miles to Prom

Supt. Souders said officials are especially concerned about student drinking the night of the May 12 prom. The formal will be held at the Anaheim Marriott, 40 miles by freeway from the students’ Arcadia homes.

“When you drive that distance to a prom and you’re involving that many students, you want to make sure they don’t have dinner parties with champagne and wine beforehand,” Souders said.

Cordano said students and their parents will be informed in writing of the planned use before the prom. Once at the formal, chaperones trained in the Breathalyzer’s use will ask apparently tipsy students to take the test.

If any student registers above a .05 blood alcohol level, his parents will be called to pick him up. That level was recommended by the instrument’s makers, who note that some substances, including mouthwashes, can trigger smaller readings.

If a student refuses to take the test, parents will still be called--and told their child appears drunk.

Police Won’t Be Called

Cordano and Souders said the police will not be called to the prom.

“We’re not there to take police action,” the superintendent said. “We’re there to try to assist the parents.”

But the students will be subject to school disciplinary measures. Souders noted that drinking during a school activity--including the prom--is a misdemeanor, punishable in the Arcadia district with automatic suspension.

Cordano noted that school officials have always been responsible for spotting students who appear drunk at school functions and argues that the machine will simply determine whether suspicions are warranted. “It saves a lot of arguments,” he said.

There has been little stir about the Breathalyzer use since its formal approval during spring break.

“The parents think it’s fine, and the students are a little noncommittal at this point,” the principal said.

But school officials clearly see the machine as a potent weapon in the battle against student drinking, which Souders called the most difficult abuse problem confronting high schools. The machine may become a regular attraction at other school functions, Cordano said.

“We do all we possibly can to instruct, inform, cajole them against (drinking),” he said. “It’s just part of our effort to do the best job possible.”