A reflection on ‘Schoolies Week 2009’
For several decades an activity called ‘Schoolies Week’ has taken place across Australia. This year Schoolies Week will take place during the weeks of 21 Nov – 13 Dec after schools let out for the year, and the Year 12 students are celebrating the completion of their Higher School Certificates. Crowds of youths are expected to reach 30,000 in the Gold Coast alone.
Students in general gather to party with students from their own schools. The Gold Coast is the main destination, but also up and down the coast are the partying centres of Byron Bay, Sunshine Coast, Airlie Beach, Tropical North Qld, and Magnetic Island.
This week is frequently the first time many of the students have ever been on holiday without their families and most are not mature or responsible enough to take care of themselves. Many schools and community groups have been filling the many needs created by this situation with the provision of safe accommodation, supervised alcohol-free dances, 24-hour security guards on site, security patrols on the streets, and the issuing of photographic identification ensuring that only real students are getting into venues, etc.
Some schools have taken the initiative by offering activities for school leavers to work with community service projects or other productive, constructive, socially worthwhile activities. I would like to see more emphasis on this kind of useful activity and eventually see it replace all the drunkenness, brawling, and general mayhem on the streets of our coastal resorts.
Church supported groups such as the Red Frogs Australia Chaplaincy Network provide alcohol-free diversions such as Coffee Crawls, and Pancake Breakfasts, and other fun social gatherings that are meant to show that it is possible to have fun without using alcohol or drugs. The Red Frogs also are available on Facebook and Twitter offering tips about how to stay safe, and reminding students that, “it is OK to say no”.
Having counselled a number of people who have been injured, had their drinks spiked, been taken advantage of while drunk, or been involved in destructive behaviours against property and people, I do not have much regard for Schoolies Week. I think putting that many young people together with complete freedom and no restrictions, socially or parentally imposed, is asking for trouble of the most serious kind.
I met someone just last week who told me that, even 20 years later, he has still not been able to get over the sense of shame he feels about his behaviour during his Schoolies Week. He now has two young daughters of his own, and is desperate to protect them from the kinds of activities he got up to himself. He asked me if I thought bribing them each with a new car would keep them away from Schoolies Week? Given that the girls are only 6 and 9 I told him I thought he had time to convince them not to go.
But perhaps I was wrong, because in the news earlier this week a 12-year-old girl was found intoxicated along with others at the Gold Coast, and parents were being repeatedly caught supplying alcohol to their underage children, which I consider appalling behaviour. I believe all Australian parents need to be more discerning and in control of their teenagers, not letting them loose on the community and fuelling them with alcohol.
Controlling young people is easier said than done, but I believe that participation in such festivities is to be recommended for parents who wish to protect their children from others running amok, or from doing so themselves. If you feel that you must let them attend Schoolies Week, please consider assisting in some way yourself, maybe just being on hand to lend the adult presence that helps modify youthful high spirits and hi jinks from going over the top.
The police statistics each year are grim, but I hope that all of your children escape those temptations and harms and are able to be proud of themselves for behaving well when they look back at their Schoolies Week in 20 years’ time.
