Photo by ProfReader
Students at Charleston School of Law will have to wait until the champagne toast after commencement for their next taste of sweet, sweet student function booze. That’s the edict from Dean Andy Abrams after the Barrister’s Ball at the South Carolina Aquarium got a bit too liquored up.
Phillip Bantz at South Carolina Lawyers Weekly dug into the story of a wild night at the aquarium that would make Troy McClure blush and found the rumors of debauchery are more a whale of a tale than fact:
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Talk of tanked students urinating in the otter tank during the ball — along with reports of other misbehavior — spurred Sidebar to drop everything and investigate.
But, so far, it appears that the stories were embellished and, possibly, conflated with unsubstantiated rumors that fouled a past ball.
The school’s president, Ed Bell, and its dean, Andy Abrams, said in separate interviews that a few students hit the bottle too hard and that one vomited. Abrams said the puking occurred in a bathroom. He also said some snockered students smoked in a stairwell, which was a violation of aquarium rules.
If that’s all there was to this, then holy disproportionate response, Batman! Vomiting confined to the bathroom is a dream come true for a law school party. Apparently, the administration asked the aquarium for security footage and the aquarium responded, “no, seriously this is no big deal.” After all, the aquarium’s played host to the Charleston Barrister’s Ball before and tall tales about that night didn’t sour them on inviting CSOL back.
So everybody, pour a little out for our friends at CSOL who won’t have the luxury for the next few weeks.
No one, um, misused the otter tank* [SC Lawyers Weekly]
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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.