Four Boston University students were found with drug possession in Derby, Vt. on Monday while returning from a ski trip organized by the BU Ski and Board club after they were searched by the U.S. border control, police and BU officials said.
Border control officials found a number of underage students in possession of alcohol, according to the police report released by the Vermont State Police Department. Officers issued 26 minor citations in possession of alcohol violations, as well as criminal citations to four BU students found in possession of drugs.
The report named BU senior Laura Eldred, 22, as a suspect found in possession of ecstasy. Sophomore Kelly Greacen, 19, senior Aanchal Khaneja, 22, and sophomore Dylan Turk, 19, were found in possession of marijuana.
BU spokesman Colin Riley said the students’ citations will be handled as normal off-campus incidents.
“What I’ve said to the media is that it’s no different than if they were cited off-campus for having alcohol or drugs,” Riley said.
Riley said though the students in question were not arrested, they will probably be contacted by the Dean of Students office.
“Now that we have their names we will call them in and . . . there could be sanctions,” Riley said. “It’s not something that’s good to hear, but they should know better.”
Eldred and Greacen were cited to appear in Orleans District Court on April 17 to answer for their charges, according to the police report. Khaneja and Turk were cited to appear on Mar. 13.
The students were returning from a trip sponsored by the BU Ski and Board Club that was open to both members and non-members, said Jason Kashdan, College of Communication sophomore. The trip included three buses for undergraduate students and one for alumni.
According to students that were on the trip, a bus from the University of Massachusetts was in front of the BU buses in the line for border control.
“With the UMass bus in front of our bus, they found a lot of weed and other kids under 21 bringing alcohol,” Kashdan said via phone. “I’m pretty sure that gave border patrol an opinion of what was to come on the buses following.”
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences of sophomore Erin Yetter said at first she did not notice anything different about the search procedure aboard her bus.
“My bus just got searched just like normal, standard procedure,” Yetter said in a phone interview. “They asked everyone to declare whether they had anything with them.”
Kashdan, who also went on the ski trip last year, said last year officials didn’t check as much on the bus as they did under the bus.
“It was just a coincidence that border control was trying to crack down a lot harder, really bad luck,” he said.
Kashdan said when a U.S. border control officer came on the bus while still in Canada, he told students they would not be processed if they came forward with their illegal substances.
“What bothered me the most was that when the guy came on our bus, the first thing he said was that anyone who had anything that would be considered illegal in the United States . . . wouldn’t be a problem and that they would just dispose of it if they students came forward,” Kashdan said. “That didn’t end up happening. The people that admitted to having things ended up getting processed and just having a hard time, which ended up being five hours.”
COM sophomore Erica Stapleton said border patrol said it was enforcing more stringent search procedures aboard the buses.
“They told us they were trying to make a statement and that they were trying to crack down on it because a lot things go through that shouldn’t be, necessarily,” Stapleton said.
An officer from the BU Ski and Board Club declined to comment.
“The Vermont State police wanted to get that message across,” Riley said. “Don’t bring alcohol and drugs across the border. You shouldn’t be in possession of them if you’re underage or if they’re illegal.”
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Keep in mind that a copy of the report may be used against you in a campus judicial hearing. While that doesn’t necessarily mean things are a foregone conclusion, it does add some serious wrinkles. Good luck, and we’re here if you need us.
To Everyone at the FreeP,
I hope you realize the implications of this article to your fellow students. By stating students’ names in your article you are ensuring that future employers will find this article on the students’ own school website. Is this how you would assert your freedom of speech? By slandering your classmates’ names and narrowing their future employment prospects? They have not been to court and have therefore not been convicted. Do not make them pay even more than they already have for something that you have very little knowledge of. I hope you will have enough decency to take their names out of your article.
To Everyone at the FreeP,
I hope you understand the repercussions of this article. By stating the names of your fellow students, you ensure that their potential future employers will easily find this article in a quick Google search of their names. Is this how you would assert your freedom of speech? By slandering your own classmates and narrowing their future employment prospects? They have not been to court yet and therefore have not been convicted. Do not make them pay even more than they already have for something that you know very little about. I hope you will have the decency to remove their names from your article.
Good point, Olivia….but other new sources, such as ABC have released the names, too.
First of all, the FreeP is not ABC. This article is associated with the University and for them to throw their fellow students under the bus like this for such a mediocre news piece is morally wrong. This is not breaking news, not by a long shot. This is not worth causing these students so much harm.
Secondly, do you read BU Today? They published a similar article and soon realized that they were wrong to publish the students’ names. They removed their names from the article. I suggest the FreeP do the same.