San Diego Police broke up an "end of school" party involving more than 100 high school students from several different schools Friday.
Alcohol and ecstasy were being used by the partygoers at a ranch in the Tijuana River Valley, according to San Diego Police Department Sgt. Robert Hawkins.
Four minors who, police say, appeared to be inebriated were rushed to nearby hospitals by ambulance.
Officers were called to the ranch on Sunset Avenue near Saturn Boulevard and found a long line of cars parked along the road.
One adult was at the party, Hawkins said, and that man identified himself as the host.
The teens were from several different schools in the area.
The adult may face charges under the city’s “Social Host Ordinance” which assigns responsibility to those who knew or should have known that a party involving underage alcohol consumption was occurring on their property.
Under the ordinance, the host may be financially responsible for the medical care needed by teens who attend the party, as well as the cost of law enforcement response.
On Saturday, NBC 7 spoke to the man who admitted he allowed his son to throw the party on the property. He said he does not own the ranch, but rents a small area there for his horse.
The father said he supplied his 18-year-old son, an Eastlake High School student, with beer for the party. However, things quickly got out of hand.
“He’s responsible,” he told NBC 7 off camera. “But then too many people showed up.”
One high school student who attended the party but did not want to be identified described the event as a “fat rager party” that was fun and “really hyped up.”
“There was Border Patrol and cops and ambulances and fire fighters, and kids everywhere running around, and it was pretty crazy,” she told NBC 7.
The student said about 300 people were at the party at one point.
NBC 7 also spoke with a parent who dropped off his son Saturday morning to pick up his truck after leaving it overnight near the party site.
“My child is responsible, we teach him, we’ve raised him to be very responsible for his actions,” the father told NBC 7, also wishing to remain anonymous.
He said his son did not drink at the party. After finding out that alcohol and drugs were present, he said it’s hard to blame the parent who hosted the party.
“The drugs and the alcohol is everywhere. So it’s one person’s actions, you have to be responsible for yourself,” the father added.
But for other parents in the area, including mother Julie Alcala, it’s a problem.
Alcala said her daughter attends San Ysidro High School and may have attended the party Friday night. On Saturday, after not hearing from her daughter, the worried mother scoured the area with her family around the ranch, posting flyers asking for help in finding her daughter.
“There’s that small possibility that someone could’ve invited her,”add Alcala. “[But] I believe she would’ve come home.”
“I’m really strict,” she added. “I pick up my kids. I monitor who they’re with. If I don’t know the parent and I can’t talk to them, then they don’t go to their house.”
Alcala said she hoped peer pressure did not get to her daughter. By 4 p.m., the girl had been found, her father said.
