22-05-2025
Operation Graduation taking place this weekend
May 21—Law enforcement, city officials and prevention agencies encouraged parents — and students — to celebrate graduation weekend and the rest of the summer safely during a news conference Wednesday the Odessa Police Department.
Project Graduation, a safe, substance-free celebration held on graduation night, is one way of doing that. It will be held this year for Permian and Odessa high schools at Urban Air. It's designed to keep seniors off the roads and away from risky environments, according to information from Project Graduation Chair Clara Pride.
Mayor Cal Hendrick appeared on video to congratulate the 2025 graduates on a job well done.
Sara Hinshaw, director of prevention programs at Basin Lighthouse, formerly Permian Basin regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said they encourage people not to have underage drinking parties. The organization helped the city enact a social host ordinance in 2017 to help local law enforcement.
The reason for the ordinance is that "we care about our youth," Hinshaw said.
"We need to be protecting our youth. We need to help out law enforcement by not providing these underage drinking parties. Let's provide sober parties. We encourage them all to go to Project Graduation. It's a party for our seniors. It's an all-night party. It's at Urban Air this year so this is where we encourage our seniors to go," Hinshaw said.
Ector County ISD Police Lt. Chancey Westfall, who is over west side operations and training, extended congratulations to all graduates.
"But what we want to also focus on is the dangers of graduation night, when students choose to go out to these parties, consume alcohol and then drive. The last thing that we want to deal with, anyone in this room that works law enforcement, any parent, anyone in our community, is ... the death of one of our kids because they made a poor choice the night of graduation," Westfall said.
"We have a lot of places that you can go. Specifically Project Graduation is a wonderful program that's been going on for many years. We encourage our students to go to Project Graduation, because that is going to be a safe place to then go and enjoy and celebrate. That is only one night, though," Westfall said.
He added that he would like to encourage everyone to avoid alcohol parties over the summer as well.
"I cannot express how heartbreaking it is to lose someone that's just now starting their adult journey in life. To our other students, to our parents, I would like to discourage you from hosting an alcohol party where one of these kids could get intoxicated and get hurt. If you have information or receive information concerning an alcohol party that's going to be hosted in the next few weeks, I would strongly encourage you to reach out to the Odessa Crime Stoppers. You can leave an anonymous tip, and we can have officers that can go and investigate that to prevent that party from turning into something deadly," Westfall said. "If you're not comfortable making the phone call, there's also the P3 app, the tip app, online. You can submit a tip there. We please encourage you to reach out if you have that information, because you could save a life," he added.
Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke said everyone remembers their graduations and wants to see their children and grandchildren graduate and move on to live a productive life. With several different agencies represented, Gerke said you can see the dedication from law enforcement to help make that happen.
"Parents, please make sure that your children are safe, make sure your children make better decisions, make wise decisions, so that they can have those happy, fulfilling lives. That's what's important to us. (The) number one goal of Odessa Police Department is protection of life. That's what this is about today. It's not about making arrests, it's not about writing citations. It's about our young people being safe and having a joyful time at graduation," Gerke said.
Council Member At-Large Craig Stoker echoed many of the sentiments Wednesday.
"This is a great opportunity for our graduating seniors to have a safe place to celebrate and really just an opportunity to gather together and not have opportunities to get in trouble," Stoker said. "There was not such an emphasis on providing spaces like this when I graduated so I applaud the efforts of those putting this on."
Westfall noted that the mission of the ECISD Police Department is always the safety of the students.
"Even though these kids are graduating, they're still ours. They came up through our school, and our officers build a relationship there. It's like a family, especially for our officers that had these kids in middle school and watched them grow up. It is a very much something we take a lot of pride in. It's very personal for us to go protect our students," Westfall said.
The best way to prevent something from happening is talking to your students or your children, interacting with them and talking about concerns.
"A lot of people leave things unsaid. When things are unsaid and you don't speak to your children about them, curiosity will get the better of them, and they will go seek out these things based on peer pressure. The best tool to fight peer pressure is education. Teach your kids what to avoid and not go to these parties. If you receive information or you believe that you're going to have students that are going to host a party, I would like to push out there that you should reach out to the Crime Stoppers Odessa program, call them, give them the information. We can go and investigate it. It's all anonymous. If you're not comfortable using the phone, P3 apps; you can download that app online. You can submit it anonymously, and for the students that are listening to this, if you get information on this party, those tips pay cash. If you give us a tip, it solves one of those parties that we get to go out and bust. It prevents a kid from getting hurt. We pay them. I want you all to keep that in mind that that is a big incentive for our students is going to be those tips and that program," Westfall said.
Gerke said graduation is something near and dear to the OPD's heart because they want young people to be safe and enjoy graduation.
"I think a lot of people mischaracterize this as, hey, we're out there trying to bust up parties and take kids to jail and write tickets, and that's absolutely not it, because over the last few years, we've actually seen a decline in the number of tips we get for this, which means it's working. The whole idea behind this is to keep those graduates that have just passed one of the major milestones of life safe. That's all we really want, and that's our main focus at the Odessa Police Department, is that protection of life and sanctity of life," Gerke said.
He added that this is a great effort that brings the community together.
Gerke said social host ordinance fines can be up to $2,000.
"That's a pretty significant fine. We haven't written an enormous amount of those, but we have written those. Those have been issued, and we'll do it again. ... We're not blind. We understand that we can't prevent juveniles from drinking alcohol constantly, but we can, we can surely try to diminish the number of times that happens, and focus on the safety involved with that," Gerke said.
Although a large focus of Operation Graduation is alcohol, drugs are also a concern.
"Any type of thing that's going to that it's going to cause harm because you think about these parties and there's overdoses; there are overdoses on narcotics; there are overdoses on alcohol. ... We also are concerned about drinking and driving, or using drugs and driving. Those things cause harm for society, also," Gerke added.
According to information from Basin Lighthouse, formerly the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse:
— 12 percent of seniors in this region get their alcohol at parties most of the time compared to the 9 percent state average.
— When surveyed, 87.8 percent of seniors in this region reported that they have drunk five or more alcoholic drinks in a two-hour span in the last month.
— Two metropolitan statistical areas in Region 9 (Odessa and Midland) account for No. 1 and 2 in most alcohol-related driving fatalities in Texas.
— The Teen Court of Odessa handles approximately 30 to 40 cases annually involving minors cited for alcohol violations. Repeat offenders face judicial proceedings and citations can have lasting impacts on their records.
— Alcohol-to-Go concerns: A study highlighted that nearly 70 percent of alcohol-to-go orders in the area lacked proper ID verification, raising concerns about increased access for underage individuals.
— Youth who drink before age 15 are four times more likely to face alcohol dependence or misuse as adults.
— Furnishing alcohol to someone under 21 can lead to a $4,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Selling alcohol to a minor is a Class A misdemeanor, which can bring a $4,000 fine and a year in jail.
