Muck-up madness as 2025 students let loose before exams start
A principal condemned “disappointing behaviour” by teens who trashed their school on muck-up day – filling a corridor with foam, attaching chairs to walls and gluing door handles.
In scenes reminiscent of past years’ out-of-control festivities, a group of students from Bayside College in Melbourne filled their hallway with foam balls, attached metal chairs to walls, hung the ceilings with streamers, had flour fights and applied glue to door handles.
A clip from the students’ last day of term three has now been viewed 87,000 times. One scene appears to show a teacher walking towards a car driven through the school gates covered in toilet paper.
Bayside College principal Milan Matejin said there was “disappointing behaviour by a small number of students which led to a significant mess being made on school grounds”.
“This incident does not reflect the behaviour or values of the vast majority of students at the school.”
Comments on TikTok reflected the seriousness of the mess, with one student saying their private school would “call the police” and another that their school would “expel us all on the spot”.
Another said they “would’ve thought this was funny 5 years ago but now my heart just breaks for the cleaners”. Another said the actions were “literally vandalism”.
Over at Yarra Valley Grammar, students spoofed muck-up events with a clip called “muck up week going crazy”. It shows students untucking their school shirts, scribbling on their school notes and dropping rubbish next to the bin.
It’s a craze that has been followed in others states as well, with clips from NSW schools showing students tearing paper and dropping school bags out of windows as others pretend to look shocked.
Schools across the country have done their best to rein in muck-up days by taking students off-site for the day, imposing strict disciplinary bans for any wrong-doing and replacing muck-up with tightly supervised “celebration” days.
Students at Aquinas College in Melbourne objected to such rules in one clip.
Students lamented that they were told they couldn’t make noise, decorate the school or sign their uniforms.
“Can we breath (sic)?”
“Ofc not” they posted.
Other students lamented that their schools had hired security guards and separated them from the rest of the school. “Sorry on behalf of the 2023 grads that ruined it,” one person commented on the Aquinas clip.
Others commented on how restricted muck-up had become, with one saying the school “cleaned up as we went” and hired overnight security.
One NSW trend was to hold a mock wedding, with students going down the aisle in pairs.
Other schools managed to keep muck-up incident-free. Trends included girls turning their school dresses into halter tops, known as the uniform halter.
Another enduring trend is for private schools to do a gender swap.
At Mackinnon High in Melbourne, students dressed up without major incident.
Respect Victoria’s Research Manager Stephanie Lusby said students should not be inspired by the ‘Mad Monday’ mockery on display at the recent end of the football season.
“I have no doubt that most school-leavers will celebrate in ways that are fun for everyone, and do the right thing.
“We hope that no one acts in ways that leave them picking up the pieces of their friendships, work opportunities, or even see them facing legal consequences because they tried to be ‘edgy’ in ways that their classmates and community know are gross and unacceptable,” she said.
“Respect Victoria is asking young people to take a moment to pause before any celebrations, think about any costumes and any activities they’ve planned, and ask themselves, is this really ok? Is this an authentic version of who I am today and who I want to be?”
Ben Vasiliou, CEO of The Man Cave, said it was an “exciting time for young people to let their hair down after years of hard work and to celebrate the milestone of finishing secondary school with the friends who helped them reach their goals.”
Got any muck-up tales? Leave a comment below or email education@news.com.au
More Coverage
Originally published as Muck-up madness as 2025 students let loose before exams start
