Were you at the after-ball party?
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One of the parents who organised Rangitoto College's non-sanctioned after-ball party is speaking out, saying if the school cancels next year's ball parents may organise their own.
New Zealand's largest secondary school has cancelled next year's balls as punishment, saying it was lied to and an after-ball function was held in defiance of the rules.
The Auckland school says the event had an open bar and "dubious supervision at best".
A parent who helped organise the ball, who does not want to be identified, says they were concerned that if they did not plan something supervised, the kids would go out and do their own thing.
"We contracted a professional company that runs these things. Kids were picked up and buses were driven to a place. They had security, they were driven back."
The man says they had around 200 teenagers at the after-ball function. He says it was better than leaving the students unsupervised to do their own thing.
"I was at the bus stop when these kids came back at four o'clock in the morning, with other parents. Two kids - out of 200 kids - had drunk too much."
He says those students were driven safely home. The dad is threatening to help organise a ball next year if the school goes ahead with its threat.
Principal David Hodge says the students and their parents had been told a number of times that the school would not stand for such an event. He says the conditions and the consequences were clearly set out, and Rangitoto College needs to follow through.
Geraldine High School also threatened to ban the 2010 ball when students organised an after-ball on August 1, despite promising they would not.
Principal Kerry Stevens said the school banned balls for a period of nine years in the 1990s because of behaviour at an after-ball function.
The issue this year was not about what happened at the after party but that it happened at all.
But rather than punish students who were not involved by scrapping all future balls, the board of trustees voted to give the students a chance to learn from their mistakes and apologise.
"A fair number of our staff worked hard to make our ball a success and it was and they were hurt by some of the lies they were told and we wanted to put that right," Mr Stevens said.
- NEWSTALK ZB, NZ HERALD STAFF
