High School after party results in over $100K damage to hotel

Yoh · December 15, 2011, 1:07am

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3403556

WELLAND — A rampage through hotel rooms in Niagara Falls has also trashed the reputation of Welland’s only English-speaking Catholic high school, its students say.
On Friday Notre Dame students rented 35 rooms from the Avenue Inn on Lundy’s Lane. According to hotel management, 22 of those rooms were damaged, some looked like bombs had gone off and others were completely destroyed.
Damage included huge holes put through walls, ducts ripped from the ceiling, a smashed glass oven door, ripped wall art and a torn Bible.
Chris Villella, a Grade 10 student at Notre Dame College School who did not attend parties at the inn after the school’s Christmas semi-formal dance was staged at the Americana Resort, called The Tribune to say he is disappointed in his fellow students.
He wants his school to be seen as the great place he thinks it is.
“Personally, I kind of felt bad that our school was getting painted with the same brush as the many kids that were there,” the 15-year-old said.
"We have some bad people, but we’re not a bad school.
It’s just an embarrassment really."
High school students from Pelham’s E.L. Crossley and Welland’s Centennial and Eastdale, as well as Notre Dame grads, are said to have also been present during Friday’s rampage.
According to Harry Liu, the son of Avenue Inn owner David Linqi Liu, one contractor has estimated it will cost "$50,000 to fix just one of the rooms."
Liu said some of the students present Friday were out of control.
“I don’t understand why you would do something like that,” he said. "They are 17 and 18, they should be responsible and reliable. They should take responsibility for what they did and we’ll go all the way to the end."
Niagara Regional Police have said the issue is a civil matter.
Villella thinks Notre Dame students should go to the motel and help clean up the mess to show the community the school’s students are not all vandals.
He thinks the people responsible should help pay for the damage.
“It’s the best thing to go down there and clean it up. We don’t want our reputation to be ruined by what these kids did,” he said.
"I think it’s just all about going out there doing what we can do maybe raise some money, pretty much anything do get those hotel owners back on their feet. They are a family, too, and they don’t have infinite money to fix it."
Niagara Catholic District School Board education director John Crocco and Notre Dame principal Ralph Defazio said Tuesday the after party at the Avenue Inn was not a school-sanctioned event, but both were disappointed in the actions of their students.
The men said they would co-operate fully with any police investigation.
Crocco said the school board has no jurisdiction over students and what they do after school hours.
Still, he called Friday’s events “a debacle.”
“I really believe those that were responsible need to be held accountable for their actions. There’s no doubt this is going to affect a number of individuals and families,” Crocco said.
"It’s not in keeping with Notre Dame’s expectations and does not reflect Notre Dame’s student body."
Notre Dame and the school board will continue to try to find out who was responsible, but the school board won’t be paying for the damage.
“Students and staff are extremely disappointed with the actions of students involved, regardless of which school they attend,” Defazio said in an e-mail to The Tribune. "The actions of a few have tarnished the excellent reputation of Notre Dame College School. This does not accurately represent the Notre Dame student body."
Some people who commented on The Tribune’s Facebook page said the matter has been blown up by the hotel and the media.
One author, Kyle Gruarin, posted a link to a QMI Agency photo with words written across it: "Dame destroys hotel; bigger deal than 911.“
But other people who posted to The Tribune’s Facebook page and website used words including “wow,” “horrible,” unbelieveable,” “ashamed” and “embarrassed” to describe what transpired.
Many other people stood up for the majority of good students at Notre Dame not involved in what happened.
Staff Sgt. Mike Woods said the hotel did not call police Friday night, but that an officer happened to check out the hotel on his patrol and noticed the large group of students. The officer asked those who were not registered guests to leave and to their knowledge they left.
“If somebody walked in off the street and broke a window they could be charged with mischief, but not a registered guest because they entered into a civil arrangement between (themselves and the motel),” Woods said.
“It’s a cautionary note for anybody planning a big event including young people. Contact us in advance.”

Best yet, parents of the scums kids that rented the place are furious as to why they havent gotten their $25 deposit back yet.
One kid from the school quote, “Dame trash hotel, media making it bigger than 911” on facebook. face palm

I couldnt imagine anything like this when i was growing up. WTF are wrong with these ppl?

chirp · December 15, 2011, 1:10am

Kids are fuckin dumb.

Lunaid · December 15, 2011, 1:33am

Fucking Canadians…

Oh wait this happened 20 minutes from my house.

orochizoolander · December 15, 2011, 1:42am

The article didn’t really mention it but isn’t it a given that a lot of kids will be doing time and/or paying for the cleanup and repair?

Radiantsilvergun3 · December 15, 2011, 1:47am

Hand em a bucket and a mop and put em to work.

M.D · December 15, 2011, 1:54am

100k damage? Not bad but with the right assist they could be doing more damage.

dodgers2213 · December 15, 2011, 1:56am

fucking kids getting drunk off a sip of beer

SF2GuileX · December 15, 2011, 1:59am

Will someone please explain to me how this low tier hotel can claim that one room will take $50,000 to repair?

Sad day when a hotel in Canada actually receives a negative review in French.

Yoh · December 15, 2011, 1:59am

I can elaborate on that. Apparently the cops were called (twice) and all they did was circle around the property while the chaos was happening. The police claim that this was a civil matter as renting the room was a contract between the kidz and the owner. I dont know much about law but the cops seem to have dropped the ball for not laying charges based on mischief on private property.

No one has taken responsibility for the damages, not the kids plus the parents names listed on the registry, and the school and board of the area are deflecting the issue. Catholic system is all about money so they dont want to escalate this event anymore.

If i was the owner, id take the guess registry list, lawyer up and take those douchebag kids and their equally useless parents for everything their worth. Smack a few criminal charges to straighten them up. Thankfully, lawyers have come forward to assist the owner.

Arsenal · December 15, 2011, 2:34am

Lol, a civil matter. I’m going to take a baseball bat to my neighbor’s car, and when the cops show up, I’ll just tell them “gtfo, it’s a civil matter between my neighbor and me”. Classic police work for sure.

FunkyP · December 15, 2011, 3:01am

Ppl itt know nothing about the laws. yes this is a civil matter, in cases like those cops really have no involvement, if they did one of the kids could easily pull out the infringing on civil rights card. Its the hotel’s responsiblity to sue the kids as theu have all the legal power to do so.

Starhammer · December 15, 2011, 4:20am

I’m with SF2GuileX on this one. That whole building looks like it’ll cost about 30,000…MAYBE.

-Starhammer-

FurryCurry · December 15, 2011, 9:54am

Kids are spoiled.

marshun · December 15, 2011, 10:42am

what’s this, a plot to a Brat Pack drama?!

d3v · December 15, 2011, 10:48am

No explanation needed.

thurst · December 15, 2011, 11:16am

umm…don’t you have to put down your credit card to get a room for this exact reason? run those little brats’ cards and keep it moving.

Yoh · December 15, 2011, 9:47pm

Besides the royal mistaking of renting your motel to a bunch of high schoolers, the owner was too lenient with $25 deposit. Should have like $2000 per room.

NIAGARA FALLS, ONT. - The Niagara Regional Police moved to address criticism surrounding its response to the Avenue Inn rampage, disputing the motel manager’s claims the officers who were on scene Friday night didn’t do enough to prevent a high school party from descending into a night of havoc.
“This is not a black-and-white issue, not even close,” said Const. Sal Basilone, at the Niagara Falls detachment. "There’s a lot of grey area here and we want to ensure that the public has the information that the police service took action."
Basilone was responding to the fallout from a Friday night post-prom party that left an astonishing trail of destruction in 22 of the 35 rooms rented by students from Welland’s Notre Dame College School.
The sheer devastation prompted motel owner David Linqi Liu, his son Harry Liu and manager Robert Forget to go public Monday, telling QMI Agency that whoever was responsible for the damage needs to be held accountable.
As of Wednesday, Harry Liu said the motel still hadn’t received a single phone call from any of the students staying in the rooms, or their parents.
“No students or parents have stepped up to contact us,” Liu said, adding his family is contemplating its options, which could include legal action against the guests.
But it was the motel side’s claims about the police response that has sparked debate in the media and online.
According to the Lius and Forget, the officers at the motel had the opportunity to intervene and prevent the vandalism, but didn’t.
Police said that based on what they knew at the time, they acted appropriately.
Accounts of what happened that night begin to diverge, depending on who is telling the story.
The ranking officer Friday night, Sgt. Patrick McGilly, outlined the police response Wednesday. McGilly was accompanied by Basilone and Insp. Chris Cincio, who oversees the Niagara Falls division.
“We’ve got to follow this up and look into it more,” Cincio said of the incident.
McGilly said a patrol car driven by Const. Matt Maguire arrived at the motel sometime before 11 p.m. Police hadn’t been called, but Maguire, seeing the group of kids in the parking lot, wanted to see what was going on.
After surveying the motel situation, Maguire called McGilly and asked him to come over. The owner wanted the Notre Dame students in the 35 rooms to be cleared out, Maguire said.
McGilly arrived at 11:05 p.m. and according to him, accompanied Forget in an inspection of the rooms in the motel’s east building.
“I’ve got it in my notes that we went to every room, that we inspected them,” McGilly said, adding they told the kids who weren’t staying overnight to leave.
Asked if he saw any destruction in the rooms, McGilly said that beyond the usual stuff to be expected with a teen party – liquor bottles strewn about, a broken window, a door with its lock broken off – nothing seemed to warrant a mass eviction.
“They were drinking,” McGilly said. "They were kids at a prom that were drinking and mingling together. There was no yelling, swearing. There was no fights, nothing to show any criminality."
Asked why the apparent underage drinking didn’t cause officers to break up the party, McGilly said he made the decision to not cast the remaining kids out into the streets for their own safety.
By the time McGilly left at 11:35 p.m., he said he had no indication the motel was either being trashed or was about to be.
Police also did drive-bys throughout the night, but were never given any indication that all hell had broken loose in the rooms, he said.
“At no time did myself or any of my officers shirk their responsibilities,” McGilly said. "Ultimately, we are there to make sure that everybody has a great time while they’re here and enjoys themselves, but that they’re safe."
Forget’s version differs from the police account.
According to Forget, the police who arrived at the motel Friday night left after only checking five rooms.
Forget said police stopped the room inspections and told him wasn’t their job to go room to room.
He also said that police told him to not call them later in the night.
“They told me not to call, because they won’t come help,” Forget said. "They told me that it’s our fault that we rented rooms to these kids, that they were done helping at that point and not to bother calling them because they’re not going to come back. That’s exactly what he said to me. It was close to around 10 o’clock at night."
After police left, Forget said he walked over to check out the rest of the rooms. It was then that he discovered the devastation in Room 135. Holes had been kicked through the drywall and the ceiling, and ductwork had been pulled down.
“When (police) walked away, I went and checked out more rooms and that’s what I found,” Forget said, adding he "never bothered calling them because they told me they weren’t going to come, so I basically tried to take care of it myself."
McGilly said that any claims of police abandoning the scene and telling Forget not to call them are not true.
“That’s a ridiculous statement,” McGilly said. "We’re there to preserve the peace and when we were there, like I said, there were no arguments, no signs of excessive intoxication."
Basilone said the suggestion made earlier in the week by police that the situation is a civil matter, and not necessarily a criminal one, is being re-examined.
“It’s really an unfortunate set of circumstances that leaves a whole bunch of kids, a motel owner and the police feeling that we could do things better,” Basilone said. "We could do things better. And you know what? We’ve learned from this instance."
bclarkson@nfreview.com

Police in damage control mode. Looks like kidz activated X-factor right after police left.

SF2GuileX · December 16, 2011, 12:26am

Damn kids turned my hotel into a Modern Warfare map.

Rugalitarian · December 16, 2011, 4:26am

Pissing on the fucking bed? Those kids not only need to be sued, but thrown into fucking prison for 50 years. Then they’ll see what pissing on the bed is like when big black man Leroy comes and wants to piss in their mouths.

fishjie · December 16, 2011, 4:38am

fucking with a chinese owner by trashing his hotel?

they need to sue the kids and their parents until all the familes are bankrupt and their homes are foreclosed on and they are thrown out into the gutter. i’ll even donate to the fund.