| Imagine this - a week of
total relaxation to let the pressures of 12 years of
school out. The wind, the surf and the sand, your friends
and you are having the time of your lives. This should be the image that you get when you think of schoolies week. Instead, the public get the image that schoolies week is an excuse to get drunk, pregnant or go on riots. The truth of the matter is that most grade 12 students set out to have some good clean fun. It is more the irresponsible teenagers who have already left school who take advantage of this occasion. We should not point the finger entirely at the people for which this week is originally intended. In 1995, the special police patrols on the Gold Coast made more than 50 arrests for drunkenness and street offences. Most of those charged were older than 18. "I’m told that most of the arrests last night were not schoolies at all and I’m told it was the same last year," said Deputy Premier, Tom Burns last year. "We want the kids to enjoy themselves but the problem we have is with the bludgers who hang off them." The Gold Coast attracts the majority of school leavers wishing to participate in the schoolies week festivities. More than 3000 students travelled to the Gold Coast to enjoy this annual occasion last year and in total spent more than 1.5 million dollars. |
The Sunshine Coast
doesn’t draw anywhere near the number of people that the
Gold Coast does at this time of the year and, as a
result, there are fewer arrests. Senior Constable Allan Hirsimaki, of Maroochydore Police said last year that 10 arrests had been made on Friday night of the schoolies week - none of them schoolies - and only one of the 36 offenders arrested on Saturday night who even came close to being a schoolie was a university student. "Most of the arrested people aren’t even from schoolies week parties…they’re from groups that just hang around and stir up trouble," said Snr Const Hirsimaki. It’s not fair that the media have given Schoolies Week such a bad reputation. The public should know that it is not a week full of drugs, alcohol and full-on-parties. The schoolies aren’t the ones getting arrested - it’s the hangers-on who are getting into trouble and giving the schoolies a bad name. most parents should have confidence that their children will be going and having some good clean fun in the coming schoolies week. By Sally |