As Merritt Secondary School’s Grad 2012 class prepares for celebrations, the local RCMP is warning students about the dangers of possible predators and excessive alcohol consumption.

“It seems like in Grade 12 students think it’s a passage of right, where they can go out and get drunk and party,” said Merritt RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore. “At a lot of grad parties that people go to, there are other people there other than the grads. We often find that there are 25, 26-year-olds that go out there who don’t have [the grads’] best interest at heart.”

She said that while drugs often dubbed the date-rape pill aren’t very common in Merritt, drinking too much alcohol can cause people to pass out and become just as vulnerable.

Spokesperson for Interior Health said she can’t estimate whether there is an increase in the number of people rushed to the hospital during grad season.

“The hospital doesn’t categorize injuries sustained due to alcohol,” she said. “Unfortunately, there is no way to gather information about injuries that were sustained due to alcohol.”

Dunsmore noted grads shouldn’t drink beverages that are mixed by a person they don’t trust – and of course drinking at an age younger than 19 is outlawed. Drugs that can be laced with other substances are also common at grad parties, she explained.

Dunsmore said that while recent grad years have been relatively free from reports of predators, the season has a black mark after a Merritt girl was offered drugs and taken to Metro Vancouver to work in the sex trade after being picked up at a grad celebration. She was eventually murdered.

Dunsmore said she suspects that since that time, people in the community are concerned whenever an unknown person invites a grad to a party and they might assume the same type of situation – as that which took place some 15 years ago – is being attempted again.

“Throughout the years, we have had instances where some girls will get invited to a party by some guys from out of town that they don’t know and usually they are smart enough to say no, but sometimes the worst-case scenario comes out of that,” she said. “A couple girls did end up going down to the coast.”

She said police haven’t been told of any threats this year.

“Usually the school calls me if that is happening.”