10 people arrested at the Howl

Non-USU students continue to be largest number of people arrested at the Howl, with nine of 10 arrests this year being people who did not attend USU.

USU Police Lt. Shane Sessions said this is common, with only two of nine arrests coming from USU student last year.

The number of arrests for 2006 is average for the Howl, he said, noting that 2005 had nine arrests and 2004 had 15.

“Our concerns going in were obviously intoxicated individuals, the possibility of disruptive activities such as fighting and we were concerned about the potential of students being sexually assaulted,” Sessions said. “There’re so many people that can be groped or molested. If you’re walking down the hall and someone gropes you, it would be so hard to know who it was.”

This year only one arrest was not alcohol related. A student who was “stopped for moshing violently” was with two underage drinkers. While he was legally able to drink, when the police did a check on his driver’s license they discovered he had an outstanding warrant, Sessions said.

Nine people were arrested on alcohol-related charges, although all of the alcohol had been consumed before coming to the Howl. Sessions said one of the students that was arrested on for minor in possession of alcohol was also charged with lewdness, because he was “exposing parts of the human anatomy that should not be exposed.”

He said the police addressed all the complaints they received from students at the Howl.

But the recurring question is whether non-USU students should be admitted, he said.

“The issue year after year is the majority of arrests are not students,” Sessions said. “So the question is, is the Howl for students or for everyone? Because it appears the majority of the problems come from non-students.”

-dilewis@cc.usu.edu