School-leavers spark controversy over tops as Victor Harbor Schoolies Festival underway
Some of Immanuel College’s newly-graduated year 12s have sparked controversy in choosing to wear tops incorporating the school name, vulgar language and a Coopers label.
SA News
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Some of Immanuel College’s newly-graduated year 12 students have raised eyebrows after fashioning controversial Schoolies singlets.
The top appears to be inspired by the design of a Coopers label and uses provocative language.
“Ultra f--ed” appears in bold black letters below the name of the school and true to traditional Coopers labels, a barrel is placed in the centre of the ‘logo’ with “Doves” written over it – a nod to the school’s crest.
Immanuel College students said they decided to wear the tops despite Principal Kevin Richardson’s objection.
They said Mr Richardson found them under a car when the year level was distributing them among students.
The trio said the principal “gave (them) a disappointing chat… on the second to last day of school” and tried to stop students from wearing them.
“He strongly advised against it… but he couldn’t stop us.”
The students said they decided to wear them as they are no longer at threat of any form of punishment since graduating.
Night one of the Schoolies Festival saw school-leavers safely celebrate the end of their year 12 studies.
All schoolies-goers were well-behaved in the festival and around Victor Harbor, police reported.
Heavy police presence and Encounter Youth’s Green Team members were on constant watch to ensure attendees practised good behaviour.
At times, a police sniffer dog was deployed outside the Schoolies entrance as year 12 graduates entered the festival.
Nigel Knowles, Chief Executive Officer at Encounter Youth, said he and the team are happy to report that Schoolies Festival’s opening night was “largely incident free”.
“We are exceptionally pleased with the first night of Schoolies Festival going off without a hitch,” Mr Knowles said.
“We had a fantastic night – the weather really turned it on for us.”
Mr Knowles said Encounter Youth estimated they saw around 4000 attendees in the Schoolies Festival site.
Mr Knowles added he had reports that the St John’s tent was “fairly quiet.”
“We take all incidents very seriously so we’re always happy to support a young person if they end up in a situation where they need that little bit of extra support,” Mr Knowles added.
With wet conditions expected at Victor Harbor today, Mr Knowles encouraged year 12 graduates to dress appropriately for the weather and to drink plenty of water.
Mr Knowles said Encounter Youth has regular briefings with emergency services.
AJ Naa, manager of Hotel Victor, was also impressed with the behaviour of school-leavers last night.
“We were expecting a bit of a rowdier crowd but everyone was well-behaved, there were no hiccups on our end,” Mr Naa said.
Mr Naa said the hotel organised for their liquor license to be extended to 2am, but decided to close at 12am because of how quiet it was.
He said that staff – who have worked at previous Schoolies Festivals – said the “kids were tame in comparison to other years”.
More than 5000 school leavers have made their way to the annual Schoolies Festival with a previously flooded caravan park not enough to deter students.
The show still went on at Middleton Caravan Park on Friday, despite the site being affected by flooding earlier this month.
Cash Vincent owns and manages the park along with her husband Andrew Vincent and said they were ready for the flock of school leavers.
“The cabins are the only things we couldn’t use over the weekend (after the flooding)” Ms Vincent said.
Despite the damage, she was relieved that none of the Schoolies kids requested cabins. Instead, they all chose to camp.
“This is a really good group, we can usually pick that,” she said.
Bella Mutton, from Sacred Heart College, said most of her fellow students were staying at Middleton Caravan Park together.
Bella said she and her school mates were worried when they heard about the floods a few weeks ago.
“Year 12 is so stressful and then like Schoolies is when you can just relax and enjoy being with one another,” she said.
Bella said she hoped Schoolies weekend would allow her to form “friendships that will last forever.”
She said she would like to see “all the individual groups like come together and everyone like bonds”.
Bella said each friendship group has created their own T-shirt designs for the first night.
“Each group has like different symbols on theirs like kind of representing their group,” she said.
Tyson Coe, also from Sacred Heart, said that his year level liked to “hang pretty tight” and that’s why they have chosen to stay at the same caravan park.
“We’re just looking to have a good time and celebrate school,” he said.
“Schoolies is always a fantastic time for our school leavers to safely relax with friends and celebrate all they have achieved,” Police and Emergency Services Minister Joe Szakacs said.
Schoolies attendee Helena Dandy from Mitcham Girls High School said she was excited to celebrate finishing secondary education.
Helena hoped to take in all the festival has to offer and opted for outdoor camping at Port Elliot in favour of caravan park accommodation.
“We’re going to have a good time and meet lots of new people,” she said.
“There’s going to be lots and lots of people and it’s going to be very chaotic and I don’t know how we’re all going to survive but we’ll see.”
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