Time to get rid of schoolies

Schoolies as David Penberthy wrote in his column in the Herald Sun has become the 'byword for the worst elements of Australia’s teenage binge drinking culture.' My patients returning from the Gold Coast often describe it as a bacchanalian orgy of excess, drinking, drugs and often unprotected sex . (The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus (or Dionysus), the wine god. The term has since come to describe any form of drunken revelry.)

Why does this happen? Simple really - four elements can combine when hoards of teenagers gather together on the Gild Coast and other places.

• Lack of supervision
• Alcohol’s disinhibiting effect
• Teen brain development
• Peer pressure on steroids

But there are many reasons to seriously think about dismantling this rite of passage.

Firstly, the people on the Gold Coast don’t want it – “…The festival does nothing but promote this city as a place where people are welcome to become so intoxicated that they vomit in gutters, swear until all hours of the morning and generally trash the place...allowing the festival to continue says to the rest of Australia - and the world - that Surfers Paradise is one big 'vomitron' - get on the ride, have some fun and spill your guts everywhere afterwards," writes Shannon Willoughby in The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Secondly, it normalises, glamorises and sanitises bad behaviour. David Penberthy pointed out that the Gold Coast the police applauded what has now come to be regarded as orderly conduct - 86 schoolies arrested on 101 charges, and a further 156 non-schoolie hangers-on pinched on 195 charges, with a further 90 receiving infringement notices. How is this okay?

Third, the cost in police resources is indefensible. Right across the country, be it on the Mornington Peninsula, Rottnest Island, Byron Bay or Victor Harbor - police are forced to deploy scarce resources to supervise, monitor and inevitably, clean up the mess that results from this 'tradition'.

But lastly, the young people end up not enjoying it. Research shows that the vast majority wish they'd never gone. Professor Sandra Jones and colleagues from the University of Wollongong found seven out of 10 of the teens, aged 17 to 19, rated the entire experience as a negative one.

The problem is simple, teenagers don't have many alternatives to mark the end of high school, so we should create them and encourage young people to do good and learn about themselves at the same time. Surely it is time for parents and schools to get together and offer a range of alternatives.

Here is an example. Kampuchea House is an Australian-funded orphanage and is located approximately 
40 km from the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia. 
It is here that the wonderful Temples of Angkor 
are located. The Orphanage recently hosted a visit of 18 Year 9 students (plus 3 teachers) from St. Leonard's College Brighton. The students donated gifts of books, stationery items and funds for new bikes.

Like many orphanages they are separately short of resources and there would be multiple opportunities for year 12 students to assist by providing labor or other resources. Surely this would be a better way to celebrate the completion of Year 12 than the vomitron?