A friend of mine has daughters at one of those poncey expensive private schools not a million miles from Wellington. You may have noticed that we’re right in the middle of ball season. One of the girls went to her school dance with an ex (as an aside – I’m terrifically impressed how well today’s youth seem to manage their relationships with their exs. So mature). Everything was fine until the young gentleman was searched and found to have a hip flask of something alcoholic on him. Luckily he was honorable and honest enough to insist that it had all been his idea, and the girl had asked him not to bring it. He was thrown out, and the girl left also, because she thought it was the right thing to do, even though she had the option to go in without him. It’s lucky he did fess up, because there would actually have been repercussions for her future, including any references she ever asked for from the school being affected.
Photo with offending bulge clearly visible. Doh!
All well and good until Monday came. Her expulsion from the dance was the talk of the school. Teachers shook their heads in dismay. Other students gossiped about it amongst themselves or said to the girl how horrified they were, and how they would have left the boy to his own devices and gone in alone. The worst part was the sheer unmitigated hypocrisy. A number of these girls, and/or their dates, had snuck in booze themselves. They’d been planning it for months. One girl actually smuggled in a number of sachets of alcohol, so that she could sell it to other girls at the dance. A most impressive example of entrepreneurship and business acumen, but possibly a little lacking in ethics (am I just old fashioned?). Apparently the toilets were awash with girls who were tired and emotional. My friends daughter was dismayed at the school’s reaction, and has become just a little bit more cynical because of it. Perhaps it’s a sign that the time is coming to leave school behind, but still – it’s sad. The end of innocence really. At least she’s lasted longer at school than I did. I left half way through my 7th form year: I could stand it no longer. The fixation with the correct uniform, the time wasted with assemblies and other twaddle, the unhealthy addiction to punctuality – it just wore me down. But at least my school was free…