What you have said Andrew is very relevant to all Schoolies and their parents. Our three children survived schoolies a few years ago but every year at this time I empathise with parents who have their young ones at the Coast "for the time of their lives". I would love to see a video prepared with your information as a Lawyer representing young people to emphasise that actions taken as an 18year old can have such life long and unintended consequences. Snoopy, Rochedale South Qld

Oh, for God's sake, let the kiddies have fun and make idiots of themselves for once in their lives; we've all done it in our time, and (nearly) all of us have gone on to be productive citizens.

The last thing I would have wanted at their age was a nagging nanny standing over my shoulder.

'Oh, for God's sake, let the kiddies have fun ' Clownfish writes

No doubt the/she probably thinks 16 year olds should be able to vote. I wonder if the abortion industry sponsors these events.

runner, I believe "flummoxed" is the word I would use for my status update right now ...

Timely warning for High School graduates and parents.

Too long children have been schooled about 'rights' with too little emphasis on responsibilities and mostly few consequences when boundaries are breached. Good caring parents get confused and even feel guilty about setting and enforcing codes of conduct and when successful may find attitudes at school offset their efforts. Spawn of deadbeat parents have barely a chance as the State schools lack teeth to control loutish behaviour. Rare to see these kids in the Private system as fees would deplete the booze/ciggie/drug budget.

Some feral behaviour and contempt for authority no doubt has roots in the last couple decades standards of child rearing and public education.

Suggest while teaching todays youth about their RIGHTS that a few NON-RIGHTS are drummed into the darlings.

For starters:
You have NO RIGHT to break the Law. Laws are intended for common good to create a safe and equitable environment for all of society as far as possible and to protect your RIGHTS. You may disagree with some rules and others may limit rights and activities within age groups. However you are bound by these laws and must obey them.
If caught engaging in illegal conduct there will be unpleasant consequences, some may be far reaching.

It's your RIGHT to learn about body functions, human reproduction, relationships and sexuality, consequences and contraceptives ect. You have NO RIGHT to consent to or engage in sexual intercourse until you are aged 16 years. You have no RIGHT to reproduce until then. No-one has any RIGHT to engage you in sexual intercourse.

Ensure juveniles get punishment that delivers a nice fright - first time in front of a magistrate. Put a stop to dogma that suggests disciplining kids for bad behaviour will scar their little psyches. Give schools back their authority. Target bad parents.

If this could happen, watch the improvements in nearly every area of youthful endeavour including Schoolies .....

Thank you Andrew. I have printed your post and will give it to my year 11 grandson: hopefully he will read it carefully.

Most schoolies believe they don't need a nanny, as Clownfish says, and no amount of "advice" is going to stop them doing what they would do anyway.

Look at the Americans and their college "spring break", now that's a "schoolies event" for lots more people and several years of college at that. Mostly the starting age is the same. Lots of kids get into trouble and lots of kids do not.

Some friends of mine offered their daughter an all expenses 2 weeks at a Fiji resort (before the troubles) and thus side stepped the whole schoolies issue.

You've brought up your kids as well as you can, you have to let them go sometime.

The police are having trouble with parents supplying their under age kids with alcohol, on the gold coast.
So whose responsible for the troubles they cause.

My daughter went to a coastal town for schoolies week last year.
After 2 nights, she rang us to come and pick her up.

She was bored because she doesn't like alcohol, and found that babysitting drunk friends was no fun for her.

I am thankful it is all over now, because it wasn't her behaviour I was worried about, it was the 'toolies' - the older guys who went to the schoolies events/areas hell-bent on 'scoring' with younger girls.

I feel sorry for all the parents whose kids haven't gone through this yet, but I certainly think they should read this article before they go.

This year is the tenth anniversary of my schoolies experience. I spent a blissful week on the Gold Coast, surrounded by friends and fellow revellers. I didn't get into any fights, and I didn't witness anything horrific. I did consume a little bit of alcohol, despite the illegality of doing so. And I survived, going home with very fond memories.

I would suspect that the vast majority of schoolies this year will have exactly the same experience. It is certainly true, though, that schoolies - as with most young people - have no idea of the potential consequences of their actions. Had I been punched while under the influence, I could easily have got into a scuffle which would result in prosecution. That would have ended my ambitions of becoming a teacher, for sure. I never thought of it at the time, and nobody was there to tell me.

As for your quip about the abortion industry, runner, the overwhelming majority of volunteers at schoolies - at least back in '99 - were from evangelical Christian churches. They ran 'time out', they ran beach parties and they turned a blind eye to the heavy drinking. Far from promoting abortion, they did the opposite. They seemed to keep a watchful eye on those schoolies who took 'guests' back to their rooms. In the morning, they woke up with stickers on their doors asking 'what would Jesus do?'

Let 'em party. But let them know what the consequences are likely to be if they party too hard.

At the risk of pontificating it seems to me that worrying about 17/18 students at schoolies and the excesses I would point out that if they haven't learned from the parents, a sense of perspective/proportion and what's important by then it's 14/15 years too late.

Our 3 children didn't go to schoolies because in their words "We can get 'pissed', if that is what I want, at home for a fraction of the cost and safer to boot.... schoolies is an over hyped ripoff"

The eldest preferred to spend his money buying a car, the next a top range computer etc. The youngest waited untill schoolies had finished then her and her two best mates went away on their own.

NB there is nothing extraordinary about either these Young adults or the way we raised them except we (parents) were involved.