The upper secondary schools in Aalborg agreed a joint alcohol policy with the city last year, and one of its principles keeps the first three months of school dry. Hasseris Gymnasium did not sign. On the first Friday of the school year it holds a party for the new intake, where the students eat together at school and are served beer if they want it. The stated purpose is to head off the unofficial initiation parties that tend to end in heavy drinking.
Most young people have already tried drinking before they start, the principal Ole Droob says, and a ban simply moves them down to the harbour, the outdoor pool or the parks, where nobody is watching. At school the quantity can be kept small, and a parent can be called if someone has had too much. The head of the student council remembers her own first party as safe: her new year group around her, and the teachers behind the bar.
So…:
Where does one of your rules move the behaviour out of sight instead of stopping it?
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Picture:
Hasseris Gymnasium (press)