Parents let in booze after ball

The Ter Huune property in Ramarama. Photo / Janna Dixon

One 15-year-old girl is believed to have got so drunk before King's College's senior ball she had to be refused entry; dozens more left the official function early so they could attend parties where they could drink into the small hours.

The school came under scrutiny last month when boarder James Webster, 16, died after drinking a bottle of vodka outside a party in Grey Lynn. The boy's death has been referred to the coroner.

Afterwards, headmaster Bradley Fenner publicly declared he would have nothing to do with any after-ball.

Parents led by business high-flier Michael Stiassny and New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, had tried to organise a party.

That was cancelled when the plans became public - but last weekend, other parents stepped in.

Fenner is distancing himself from the private parties held before and after the school's Winter Ball at Eden Park last weekend.

Yesterday, he refused to comment on a drunk girl being turned away from the ball.

He said: "Our view is that the ball was the focus of the evening - and that should be enough.

"We cannot control what some of our parents might choose to do and if they wish to conduct something, our only wish would be that it's fully compliant with the laws and also in terms of responsible parenting."

Last Saturday evening, students began leaving the official school function early and getting into a queue of late-model Mercedes, Audis and BMWs, to be ferried to parties as far afield as Ramarama, more than 30km south.

In Ramarama, Karen Ter Huurne threw a party for son Lee, who is in year 12, and others. The teenagers were allowed to drink, under the supervision of a group of parents, and five bouncers.

"I mean, it's not our kids who are the problem - it's the gate crashers," she said.

Without advising the headmaster, she hired two portable toilets, and held the party in a shed on the large property. Another parent provided sausages and the students brought their own alcohol.

"I didn't supply any alcohol - I just got the water. They are teenagers, they want to drink. They didn't come with loads of alcohol and no one was drunk."

The party went till about three or four o'clock in the morning, she said, after which some students caught taxis back into the city, while other were given rides by parents.

"It's about learning to drink responsibly. That poor kid James, he was on his own drinking in the car - that is so sad."

Ter Huurne said she was aware of one woman who thought it was disrespectful to James Webster's family to have a party.

But Webster's mother Penny declined to comment. "We are in the middle of an investigation with James. It's still very delicate for us," she said.

Fenner said he had been told by school prefects on Monday that there had been "a few smaller gatherings afterwards of a less formal kind".

He said the school was reviewing its alcohol and drug guidelines, and also drafting guidelines for social events that it would supply to parents.

"We cannot be governing our students and their parents at all times of the day and the week. Being realistic, they will occasionally make mistakes as well," he said.

"Our focus was on the ball. What occurred afterwards had nothing to do with us. You cannot expect schools to solve all of society's problems."