Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Juvenile Justice topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Juvenile justice officials report extreme underage drinking trends and warn about Orbeez projectile incidents
Summary
Fremont County juvenile justice leaders told the Lander City Council that juvenile alcohol citations remain the top source of referrals and that county average blood-alcohol concentrations rose from 1.123 in 2024 to 1.148 in 2025. Staff urged education, community partnerships and data-sharing to address harms; probation staff also warned about injuries tied to 'Orbeez' projectile guns.
Sage Goff, director of Fremont County youth services (juvenile justice), and Hattie Calvert, assistant director, presented program updates and data to the Lander City Council and asked for continued city support and partnerships.
Calvert summarized six-month and countywide data: 36 citations originating in Lander so far this year and an increase in juvenile DUIs. For countywide citations with recorded blood-alcohol concentrations, the average BAC rose from 1.123 in 2024 to 1.148 in 2025, with highest recorded values exceeding 1.23. "These numbers should alarm everybody," Calvert said, characterizing those BAC values as evidence of "extreme drinking" among some juveniles.
Goff described evidence-based juvenile programming (moral recognition therapy, the Change Company curriculum), urinalysis and ankle-monitor supports, and a funding mix that includes municipal contributions, a community juvenile-justice board grant, and county support. Calvert and Goff asked for continued city engagement on education and prevention; council members suggested multi-agency debriefs and data-sharing between the city, hospital and other agencies to better understand post-event impacts.
Sierra Hernandez, the Lander probation officer, highlighted a separate safety issue: the growing misuse of gel-ball 'Orbeez' (Orbi/Orbeez) projectile devices. Hernandez said the devices can cause welts, eye damage and dangerous escalations when they look like firearms; she described recent incidents, confiscations and a near-miss at a retail location involving an off-duty officer who initially thought the device was a real gun.
Why it matters: The juvenile-justice presentation documented high BAC averages and a rise in juvenile DUIs, identified parents as a frequent source of alcohol for minors, and called for public education and coordinated prevention efforts. The probation office also requested community-service partnerships and noted the public-safety consequences of recreational projectile devices being misused or misconstrued as weapons.
Next steps: Juvenile justice requested continued city support and offered to provide multi-year trend data on request. Council members encouraged staff to plan outreach and consider a holistic debrief of large events to capture hospital and emergency-service impacts.
