Cache County deputies break up gathering of 200 teenagers

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SMITHFIELD — Deputies with the Cache County Sheriff’s Office are trying to let teenagers know about the importance of good social distancing after breaking up a gathering of around 200 people at Sky View High School.

A resource officer saw the online post, which told teenagers from all over the county to meet up at high school and play some games.

Deputies were there waiting that night and said teenagers were arriving in groups of five to 10 per car.

“Because of what’s going on right now, we want them to be safe, we want the schools to be safe,” said Cache County Sheriff Chad Jensen. “Schools are closed, so they can’t be on the school property. So we had deputies waiting at the school and when the kids showed up, many of them were confronted and they dispersed.”

Jensen said it took deputies around an hour to break up the event of approximately 200 people and the teens were generally understanding about why they were there to do that.

“It stinks not having your senior year in high school and it stinks being home quarantined,” he said. “We understand that and we sympathize with that. But also we’ve been given some direction on an unknown problem, and we don’t know where this is going to go, and we just want everybody to be safe.”

Cache County Sheriff Chad Jensen. (Photo: KSL TV)

Events like this are why officials with the Bear River Health Department said it’s important to have conversations with children and teenagers about the importance of social distancing.

“Talk a little bit more to make it personal with them, and say, we realize that you’ve got a grandparent, or a grandmother or father, or maybe you have a friend or a cousin that might have an underlying health condition, that’s immunocompromised in some way,” said Lloyd Berentzen, director of the Bear River Health Department. “Then when we relate to them what the disease can do to those folks, it makes it a little more personal, when they realize they can actually bring that disease to them, unknowingly.”