By CRAIG FREILICH and MATT LINDSEY

CANTON -- SUNY Canton has disciplined some of the estimated 300 students involved in an out-of-control off-campus party that had to be broken up by police due to complaints from neighbors.

SUNY Canton Dean of Students Courtney Bish said some sanctions such as probation and community service have been imposed after the loud outsized party off campus early on Sept. 21 raised the ire of neighbors and spilled into the streets.

And more disciplinary action could be meted out as the school’s investigation of the incident continues, she said.

As police tried to shepherd the 300 students back to campus, many did go, but many resisted police direction and held up traffic on the streets, officers said. After about an hour the streets were finally cleared.

“Disciplinary actions will be taken against the students who live in the house as well as the organization,” the fraternity Gamma Sigma Zeta, said Gregory Kie, senior media relations manager at SUNY Canton.

Several members of the fraternity have already made the rounds of the neighborhood apologizing for the upset they caused the area.

At the request of the St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, Canton police responded with two cars to break up the large party outside the village limits at 1938 Old DeKalb Road, just behind Coakley’s Hardware, a house that Canton Police Chief Lori McDougal says has been the source of complaints “for at least three years.”

A neighbor, who does not wish to be identified out of fear of retaliation, said he has made calls to police authorities before about parties at the house, although he was not the one who complained about this party.

It took Canton police officers, with help from two state troopers, SUNY Canton Police and St. Lawrence University security, “over an hour to escort the crowd of primarily SUNY Canton students back to campus,” McDougal said. Village police were asked to respond outside their jurisdiction by St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s dispatchers because sheriff’s deputies were “tied up with a couple of incidents elsewhere,” according to Sheriff Kevin Wells.

“The mass of students proceeded to Main Street, where they shut down traffic, continuously yelled vulgarities at law officers, and terrorized Canton in a march through the village,” the neighbor said.

Attempts by police to control the crowd were unsuccessful as the group continued to loiter on West Main Street while police drove down the street using their horns and told individuals to get off the street. Police were reportedly met by comments such as “suck my ass,” according to a police report.

No arrests were made.

“Several fraternity members live there…but the house is not sanctioned by SUNY Canton,” Kie said.

Kie said he feels the college has a responsibility to address off-campus problems and said they are doing just that.

“The dean of students says she will use this as a learning opportunity for students and fraternities,” Kie said.

Kie said Dean Bish wants to convey to students that as students at SUNY Canton they need to be good citizens and good neighbors.

“Despite the fact that no arrests were made we want students to understand that this behavior is not acceptable,” Kie said.

After police broke up the party, they then tried to disperse the crowd that had moved to the intersection of Old DeKalb Road and West Main Street, State Rt. 68, inside the village limits. The police report said the crowd forced vehicle traffic at the intersection to come to a halt.

Further attempts to disperse the crowd were unsuccessful, police said. Many in the crowd actually went east in the middle of the road toward downtown rather than west toward the entrance to SUNY Canton, where police hoped to move them.

Police tried with their car horns and voice warnings to get the crowd out of the road, but they were met with insults. The crowd crossed the Grasse River bridges to Riverside Drive.

After about an hour, the police “got the mass herd of subjects to enter onto the footbridges” to the campus, according to the police report.

While acknowledging that this group was large, “it’s not uncommon” for members of her department to herd students back to campus after bar closing time on Fridays and Saturdays, Chief McDougal said.

“We break up these parties, not every weekend, but they do occur and we do the best we can to get the students quietly back to campus, but it’s hard to control a large group like that.”

St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said his deputies did not respond to this incident because his patrols where spread out around the county attending to other incidents.

“When someone calls 911, whoever gets sent is who’s available,” Wells said.