By ANN DOSS HELMS
The Charlotte Observer

Several North Mecklenburg High School students face citations and school suspensions after allegedly drinking vodka on a prom bus rented by school board member Rhonda Lennon.

Ms. Lennon, who says her daughter was charged with underage drinking Saturday, said Tuesday that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools staff and police did the right thing, and that the teens should face the consequences.

Related link: Rhonda Lennon’s statement

Ms. Lennon said her daughter, a senior, has been suspended for 10 days. She said she made her daughter call the college where she’s been accepted to report her own actions.

“This is a difficult time as a parent, but I will make sure my daughter takes full responsibility for her actions,” she said.

Ms. Lennon said she rented a Ragin’ Uptown party bus to take 34 students from a pre-prom dinner in the Mallard Creek area to the prom at Michael Waltrip’s Race World in Cornelius. Afterward, it was to have taken the girls to one after-party and the boys to another.

She said she got the bus to keep groups of excited, distracted teens from driving. The bus company required Lennon and her daughter to sign a “prom promise” saying they understood that any illegal use of drugs or alcohol would end the service. Ms. Lennon said she had all the other students sign the same agreement at the dinner.

But when the bus arrived at the prom, the driver smelled alcohol, Ms. Lennon said. She said when she arrived, police were there. Someone made an announcement that everyone who had arrived on that bus should come to the front, where police were searching purses left on the bus and administering Breathalyzer tests.

Ms. Lennon said they found water bottles filled with vodka; she said her daughter didn’t have one but tested positive for drinking.

“It breaks my heart,” Ms. Lennon said.

N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement cited seven students for underage consumption and one for possession of alcohol. Citations issued by Cornelius police were not immediately available.

Ms. Lennon said today she wonders now whether she should have checked purses and sniffed water bottles. But she said students also have to take responsibility. And she said parents should be aware that good students can get involved in this kind of thing.

“These are not the ‘troubled kids,’?” she said, “but they caused major trouble.”

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