Brick Schools Ban Bottles, Backpacks From Home Football Games

BRICK, NJ — If you're planning to attend this weekend's Toms River North football game at Brick Township High School, a word of advice: leave the water bottles at home.

The Brick Township School District is banning spectators from carrying water bottles from outside sources into football games in the wake of issues that arose at the Brick-Brick Memorial football game two weeks ago.

Acting Superintendent Dennis Filippone said students will no longer be allowed to wear shirts with slogans or bring flags to football games, and backpacks, water bottles and outside drinks of any kind will not be permitted in either.

Brick Township High School has a home game against Toms River North this Friday. Brick Memorial is home as well, hosting Toms River South. Fans attending the Brick Memorial game will be barred from bringing water bottles and outside drinks as well.

The slogan and flag ban is in response to a fight that occurred when students from Brick Township High School went to the Brick Memorial stands and grabbed the Brick Memorial "Warlords" flag. In response, a Brick Memorial student went to the Brick Township stands to retrieve the flag, and a fight broke out. The district suspended 10 students in the wake of the fight.

Parents, students and Brick Township school district officials have said the underlying issue at the Brick-Brick Memorial game was not a rivalry between the schools; the problem is alcohol use by students.

Several parents who spoke with the Patch said alcohol use by teens is a significant problem not only at football games but in the town in general.

"My son has been invited to a number of parties where the kids were drinking," said one parent, who asked not to be identified out of concern over a backlash toward her son. In at least some instances, the adults are supplying the alcohol, she said.

"Some are lax, some are naive, some are in denial, some pay no attention, and some want to be their kid's best friend or want their house to be the 'cool' house," the parent said. "And then there's the old 'Well, if they are going to drink anyway, I would rather they do it at home.' "

An informal survey of Brick Township parents conducted by the Brick Municipal Anti-Drug Coalition in 2015 showed that while there are many parents who don't find it acceptable for teens to be supplied with alcohol, there was still a small percentage — 12 percent — who are okay with underage drinking in a private home if all of the kids have designated drivers, give up their car keys or if an adult is supervising.

Roughly 400 people responded to the BMAC survey, which was available on the township's website. More than 42 percent said they knew of neighbors or other adults who permitted underage alcohol consumption in their homes. The survey also asked how many parents regularly monitor the amount of alcohol in their homes, and 18.6 percent said they checked it.

Several people commenting on an 8-second Snapchat video of the fight said students were drunk at the game. One mother said her daughter was handed a water bottle containing vodka. Another person noted students were drinking alcohol in the parking lot before the game.

Brick Township police said alcohol is not permitted at high school games, regardless of the age of the person.

"The Police Department is under a zero tolerance policy for alcohol at school sporting events," Sgt. Neal Pedersen, a department spokesman, said.

Filippone said there were some students removed from the area because they were intoxicated. He did not have an exact number on how many. But the issue of students using water bottles to bring in alcohol is the reason for the ban on outside drinks, he said.

This is not the first time there has been an issue with alcohol and intoxicated fans involving a district football game. In December 2015, an adult woman was caught on video attacking a student at Brick Memorial's NJSIAA championship game against Jackson Memorial. Witnesses to that incident said the woman was intoxicated and that many people were tailgating with alcohol prior to the game, which was held at Rutgers University.

Students drinking at high school games is not an issue Brick Township is alone in facing. At Randolph High School, a debate has been raging after 75 students were forced to take blood tests to prove they had not been drinking after an empty beer container and cups smelling of beer were found under the bleachers at the school's first game. At Ridge High School, officials will be screening students at football games with Passive Breath Alcohol Sensor Devices to detect alcohol consumption, the result of what officials said were "multiple incidents where students attended school functions under the influence and required medical attention."

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association bans the use or sale of alcohol at its sanctioned high school sporting events.

Commenters both on the Patch and at the school board meeting suggested the solution was for the school district to drop athletics from its offerings altogether.

"I don't want my tax money used to pay for this," said Nan Coll, who suggested sports be removed from the schools entirely and run by outside organizations.

Filippone said the district has been working hard to drive home not only the issues of the dangers of drug and alcohol use but character issues as well.

"Some day students from both schools will have the courage to step in and stop incidents (such as the fight) instead of filming them," he said. "We cannot fall into the trap of saying kids are kids. It is our job and our duty to do better than that."

School board president John Lamela said that while the district is working hard to address and proactively prevent problems, the issue is bigger than the school district.

"Taking sports out of this school district isn't the answer," Lamela said, adding that multiple studies have shown that the time after school is when kids, particularly those whose parents are working, get into trouble. Coaches, club advisers and all kinds of extracurricular programs run through the schools create opportunities to influence kids to do the right thing, but those efforts only go so far, he said. The effort to make sure kids are doing the right thing must start at home, he said.

"Yes, it's the parents," Lamela said. "We spend thousands of hours with these kids. When we do a great job, most of the time it’s not recognized. When we don't, we're damned."

"This community is a family but it's incumbent upon the parents to do their job," Lamela said.

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