The young students who successfully completed their Junior Certs were entitled to celebrate upon receiving their results. Yet, sadly, our society at the moment is not giving 15-year-olds the proper venue or climate for such celebrations, which is most unfair. A case in point: the parents at a southside Dublin secondary school got together to organise a safe, responsible visit to a rugby club disco for their children. They organised a bus, discussed expectations of behaviour at the event in advance and ensured that the 15-year-olds would be safely delivered and conveyed home from what they thought would be a well-organised event.
But, when the bus arrived at the rugby club, there was chaos in the queue, which was also peopled by drunken students from other schools. Jostling turned to fighting and the bussed-in students had to resort to phoning parents to be taken home.
By 9.30 p.m. they were ordering pizzas and watching videos in each other's houses. Moral of the story: the responsible parents, no matter how hard they tried, could not make up for the inadequacies of parents whose 15-year-olds were drunk by 8.30 p.m. There has to be a solution, whereby responsible 15-year-olds (the majority, I might add) can dress up, enjoy a social evening and not see it turn into a melee.
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