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By MIA FREEDMAN
It’s hard to talk about the death of a 17 year old at Schoolies this week without using cliches such as “every parent’s worst nightmare” because it truly is.
I never went to schoolies, myself. Instead, I celebrated the end of my year 12 exams by going to Hamilton Island with my mother where we huddled around the TV watching the Berlin Wall come down on CNN. Rock and roll. But I had no desire to go anywhere and drink myself stupid. I just didn’t see the point.
Once you reach a certain age and begin identifying more with the worried parents than the wasted kids, you tend to tune out the annual schoolies media coverage – until this year.
Today’s Daily Telegraph.
With the shocking news about tragedy on the Gold Coast and the near-miss when 18 year old Cameron Cox was photographed sleeping on a balcony ledge 11 floors above the ground – it’s been impossible to ignore.
I’m still a few years off having to deal with my firstborn going to schoolies but I’m going to remember the advice adolescent expert Dr Michael Carr-Gregg has been giving to year 12 parents: bribe your kids not to go. Cash, a car loan, whatever it takes. As has been devastatingly proven this week, the combination of drunk kids and highrise buildings can be lethal.
The full circumstances around this young woman’s death aren’t yet known. But the fact is that someone’s beautiful daughter is dead after going to schoolies. Our thoughts and sympathies are with her family and friends after this senseless tragedy, that can never be undone.
And if there is a sense of anger and frustration amongst parents around what goes on at schoolies? It’s born of deep terror that, just like us at the same age, many teenagers have a frightening inability to foresee, judge and manage the consequences of their actions.
Comments
211 Comments so far
I get a little peeved with all the schoolies hate.
I’m 21 and I went to schoolies at Victor Harbour in SA. Sure there were silly kids there that got so drunk they got taken away in ambulances, but none of those people were my friends. We were responsible and knew our limits. Alcohol isn’t forced down someone’s throat. I drank consistently for 3 days straight but I made sure I ate regularly, drank water when I started to feel sick and knew that I’d had enough.
Overall, it’s about the kid, not the alcohol. Instead of bribing your kids, educate them! Tell them to stay with their friends, make sure they have food in their bellies and that they don’t need to be smashed to have fun!
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Oh come on.
So Michael Carr Gregg recommends bribing kids with a car loan rather than go to schoolies and yet MORE, MANY MANY more kids will die in car accidents then will ever die at schoolies.
Talk about an over reaction. There are thousands of kids who go to schoolies every year.
Out of all of them, SOME years some kids might die. Yes it is tragic and I cant imagine the pain for these families BUT please put this into perspective.
Your kids have a much higher chance on dying in the car with you, then dying at schoolies.
Enough with the helicopter parenting, enough with the sensational headlines, enough with the over reaction.
People die, people do stupid things, people who do nothing wrong still die, good people die, bad people die.
Teach your kids to the best of your ability, give them advice and then let go. They are young adults, your job is done. Your whole role in their lives was to let them go.
Please MM, enough with these stories, they do nothing but worry the parents who are already freaked out and make it seem that half the people who go to schoolies are going to meet some terrible end.
Do a story about the 15,000 other kids who all came home after having a great time.
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my friends and I rented a house in Port Mac right on the water, other people from our school were around the area so we’d all get together for BBQ’s etc. I had the best time with my friends, even if I went to schoolies at the gold coast I know I would have been fine because my friends are a wonderful group (still friends 7 years later) who have each others back and would never let one another get in a dangerous situation. Unfortunately bad things do sometimes happpen to good kids with good friends but I know when I was 18 the majority of the people getting in trouble on schoolies were the ‘bad’ kids who had been binge drinking for years.
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I went to schoolies on the Gold Coast – exactly 20 *cough cough* years ago! It wasn’t even called schoolies then and although there were 10 of us in 2 apartments we literally only encountered one other group of private school boys when we were there.
Yes, there was lots and lots of drinking (and for the very first time) but we all looked after each other (we never ever separated at night), ate 3 meals a day, lounged by the pool to recover from the heavy nights of dancing. The biggest incident was a sprained ankle on the dancefloor.
I’m still friends with those group of girls today and really cherish the ‘crazy’ memories…
I’m shocked my parents ever let me go back then but they trusted me and my group of girlfriends. I realise the goal posts have changed but if you trust your kids maybe you have to widen the net a little??
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Beer Garden circa 1987 was the place to be!
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I totally agree Mia. Shocking n sad beyond belief for everyone involved.I had a conversation with my 15yr old earlier in the week. When i said i would nit reccomend he go to ‘schoolies’ on the gold coast , he said 2 things, mum to many people n he wants to celebrate with my ‘real’ friends. I suggested he n his dad go for a week to the Kimberly’s. He’s already saving!
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This is not the first time a schoolie has fallen off a balcony either. There has been at least one death a few years running now. Also, it’s not just isolated to school kids, all sorts of people have been known to fall off balconys. The’re tragic accidents, and accidents happen every day.
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I went to schoolies got drunk had fun and didnt fall out of any windows.
Maybe we should ban windows? Or schoolies booking apartments above ground level? Or drinking? Or make schoolies book window free rooms?
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I was often in cars with drunk drivers (over 0.05 at least; sometimes far over). Nobody got hurt. Therefore, obviously not a problem, right?
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You are far, far more likely to die getting into a car with a drunk driver than you are attending schoolies.
Sensible kids don’t get into cars with drunk drivers, and they certainly don’t do it often..
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Do we know that the person that died was drunk? Because that’s kind of what your article implies, and if she wasn’t, then maybe that’s a bit unfair …
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Good point Stylus. The police have said she was alone in her room and there were no suspiscious circumstances. It just might be an incredibly sad, lonely and desperate young person who was “not OK”. A bit of sensitivity and less judgement wouldn’t go astray.
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I agree. I didn’t go to schoolies either and plan to take my boys on a holiday (like you went with your mum)
Am going to start telling them now (11 and 7) that it will not be happening in our house.
Such uncontrolled drinking and hedonism is disgusting, degrading and dangerous.
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I cant wait to hear how that goes down in 7 and 9 years time! Like a sack full of boulders if your boys are anything like most of the boys I know!!
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