Police arrested nearly two dozen people at a number of Dalhousie University’s homecoming parties in Halifax’s South end on Jennings, Larch, Chestnut and Preston streets, Saturday.
Police estimate between 1,200 and 1,500 people were attending various celebrations in the neighbourhood and they started drinking alcohol early in the day.
"The Twitter sphere was really blowing up about Jennings Street,” said Dalhousie University student, Riley Taggart. “It was the Jennings Street 1.0 Legendary Rip.”
Sgt. Darla Perry of the Halifax Regional Police said officers were alerted about the party ahead of time.
"Halifax Regional Police were alerted to a social media release of a possible party that was going to take place in the vicinity of Jennings, Chestnut Street. We responded with several officers to contain large parties that were spilled out onto the street,” she said.
Director of communications and public relations for Dalhousie University, Brian Leadbetter said the behavior of the students was not reflective of the school he represents.
"It's unfortunate that many of our students chose a different path today, many of whom where consuming alcohol in public which is not legal, many of whom were disrespectful to police officers," he said. "This is not reflective of the Dalhousie University that I represent and this is not reflective of the vast majority of our students."
The university had hired extra duty officers to help police in the area, but reinforcements from elsewhere in the city were needed.
Dalhousie officials admit they're disappointed with the way things went and say there could be consequences for students.
“Students who we can identify as part of this will be possibly subject to disciplinary sanctions from the university and again we want to apologize to the community, this is not acceptable, this does not reflect us and this does not reflect our values,” said Leadbetter.
"They actually issued us some court summons, so we have to go to court now because without our permission, people were on our step and we didn't clear it off well enough and now we have to go court,” said Saint Mary's University student, Cole Kehoe. “I got this little nice ticket here.”
Police said charges laid Saturday relate to the Liquor Control Act, Criminal Code and By-Law Violations.
Police remain on the scene monitoring the area as homecoming weekend continues.