BUCKFIELD – School officials said Wednesday they were still investigating an underage drinking party raided by police over the weekend.

They had not yet determined what kind of disciplinary action would be taken against those attending Buckfield Junior-Senior High School.

Principal George Reuter said the school’s dean of students/athletic director had been dealing with the party aftermath for most of the day.

Officials declined to comment on whether any students summoned on charges of alcohol consumption by minors had been banned from playing sports.

School Superintendent Richard Colpitts said that before students can participate in sports, they have to sign an agreement to abstain from alcohol and attending parties where alcohol is present.

“So, those students who we find were participating and were present, they will be sanctioned from playing athletics for the remainder of the year,” Colpitts said.

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“Obviously, we’re disappointed with some of the choices the kids have made,” he said. “We have very little control over what parents allow their kids to do over a weekend.”

Eleven of the 24 charged with underage drinking were under the age of 18; one was a Buckfield eighth-grader, police said. The 13 between the ages of 18 and 20 were from Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner and Livermore Falls.

Four other juveniles who sneaked away before police could charge them were still being sought Wednesday, Maine State Police Trooper Jason Wing said.

He said he and Trooper Adam Fillebrown were patrolling for underage drinking parties in the Buckfield area on Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

“We were just going on patrol and someone called in a loud noise complaint and that’s how we got it,” he said.

They were called at 12:30 a.m. Sunday to the Jordan Road home of Gretchen Kimball, a teacher at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School, Wing said.

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The trooper said Kimball was vacationing in Florida and was unaware of the party being held there. Her son, James Kimball, 21, was charged with furnishing a place for minors to consume alcohol.

Wing said Wednesday that he hoped the people involved understand the seriousness of the problem.

“With the kids that get caught with alcohol, we’re out trying to prevent the accidents from happening before they become much worse, especially where a couple of weeks ago, I had that one up in Peru,” Wing said.

On April 21, two 16-year-olds leaving an underage drinking party in Peru crashed their car into a tree at 1:10 a.m. off Ridge Road. Both suffered serious injuries and were hospitalized. One boy had two broken legs.

“We want to just stop these things before everything gets out of control,” Wing said.


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