Ditch Day Party Raided; 3 Sent to Detox Center

A tequila party thrown by a dozen Orange High School teenagers playing hooky was crashed by police Thursday, and three of the youths were sent to a local hospital detoxification center after they had consumed too much alcohol.

The sickened youths were expected to recover. Police took two youths to a local truancy center and released seven others to angry parents.

“He’s going to be in big trouble,” said Ricardo Sanchez, who arrived to pick up his younger cousin. “I know what goes on at these types of things. Apparently, this isn’t the first time.”

Police called it a ditch party, and said that although teenagers playing hooky is nothing new, Thursday’s incident was unusual because several of them became so ill.

“Usually if we have a party involving teens and booze it happens on the weekend,” said Orange Police Lt. Jim Anderson. “It’s not very common that we would roll to a party with alcohol at 10 in the morning on a weekday. In this circumstance, the drinking was so excessive that we actually had to call paramedics for the severity of the intoxication.”

One of the students, who said she lives at the house where the party was held, said it began when some friends suggested going to her house instead of school. She said about 25 teenagers were drinking shots of tequila, and many of them left before police arrived.

One 17-year-old, who was waiting for his parents to pick him up, said: “We got carried away, I guess.”