Greens roast 'obnoxious' breathtest plan

A college's plan to breathtest every student attending its school ball on Saturday has attracted the ire of the Green Party, which says it is "an obnoxious intrusion".

All Kapiti College students and their parents who have bought tickets to the ball were asked to sign a contract agreeing to be breathalysed.

Principal John Russell said the decision had been made because of bad behaviour at last year's ball.

This time, any student deemed to have had too much to drink would be excluded.

Mr Russell told National Radio the message he wanted to get across was that it was possible to have fun without alcohol and drugs.

But Green Party MP Keith Locke said the move was an unnecessary affront to the students.

"By imposing such intrusive testing, the Kapiti principal displays little regard for the students attending the annual ball," Mr Locke said.

"The fact that students might have agreed to the breathtesting doesn't excuse this obnoxious practice.

"It wasn't a free choice because students were going to miss a highlight of their year if they didn't sign the contract signalling their consent to the procedure."

Mr Locke said his party was worried about a precedent being set.

"Are we going to see a whole rash of private breathtesting as the police farm out equipment to schools, employers and community organisations?" he said.

The chairwoman of the student ball committee, Stephanie Huse, said students were initially shocked by the move but had now accepted it.

Auckland Council for Civil Liberties president Barry Wilson said there were better ways of dealing with drinking at balls, and the school should be concentrating on what happened at the after-ball party.

- NZPA