Oh brother!

Schoolies, Toolies, Foolies and now Droolies. Maybe they should get the complete set by inviting children’s entertainers, the Hooley Dooleys.

Leavers Week or ‘Schoolies’ is over for another year. After 12 years of schooling it’s a time for school leavers to break free from the shackles of study and cut loose with their friends.

Here in Australia it’s a week full of 17 year olds taking part in drunken, debauched behaviour. Each day in the newspaper we see reports of more damage to participants and property as the leaders of tomorrow cause us oldies to start worrying about the future. “It wasn’t like that in my day”.

But is that really the whole story? Are our young people really that far out of control?

One of my brothers, Erik, works for Youth for Christ. He has been part of Leavers Week activities for several years and this year he spent time in Dunsborough working alongside police and other youth organisations helping to foster a safer environment for the teenagers taking part in the week of celebrations.

I invited Erik to join me during my radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM this morning to get a clearer picture of what really happens at places like Rottnest and Dunsborough when school ends for thousands of Western Australian young people.

You can listen to our conversation using the media player below.



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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6 Comments

  • That schoolies’ scene can be hairy eh?
    Tell me Rodney, did you switch to the NEW blogger format? They ask me and then tell me I’d have to have an account. Sounds like money. Please advise mate.

  • G’day Keasty.

    New Blogger won’t cost you a cent. The account they’re talking about is a Google account.

    Google bought Blogger some time back and what they’re doing with the new Blogger is asking you to sign in with a Google account rather than your existing Blogger account. It doesn’t cost anything to sign up to Google.

  • I’m a little late on this one, but here on the Gold Coast, most of the problems with Schoolies’ week are usually caused by 35-40 year old hangers on rather than the kids themselves.

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