Editorial: Having fun carries responsibilities

OPINION: Most of us can remember the last couple of months of secondary school as we left Year 12 or 13, or back in the day, Form 5, 6 or 7.

The run up to the end of the year was a mix of stress and elation, with a pinch of sadness for some.

Exams still had to be sat, particularly in the days of School Certificate and University Entrance, if you weren't lucky enough to get it accredited. Jobs had to be found or places in university, teachers college or polytech sorted.

And once tests were all over and a future mapped out, it was just the run-up to prizegiving and the last walk through the school gates.

So it's no surprise that students want to let their hair down. Girls, and boys, sometimes just want to have fun.

So was the grundy run by Marlborough Girls' College past Marlborough Boys' College last week such a bad thing?

On the whole it seemed like harmless high jinks. There didn't seem to be a lot of flesh on display. There didn't seem to be anything particularly salacious about it.

It may not have been done a generation ago, or even 10 years ago, but it was the choice of the students of 2009.

Running through Blenheim in a bra and shorts in the middle of the day with a pack of fellow students is not an indictment on who you are or your sense of worth. It certainly isn't for the boys who do the grundy run so why should it be for the girls?

And if there are different standards for girls than boys, as one person commented after the run, it's time that changed.

And if you want to go a bit nuts, far better to do it in a crowd, presumably sober and with that sense of it's great to be alive.

But the run has been criticised.

The principal of Marlborough Girls' College has called it damaging to the school's reputation.

The principal is, of course, charged with keeping the students safe while they are at school. If there had been an incident, especially a traffic accident, who would have been in the firing line?

She would also have had to take the calls from anyone in Blenheim who was offended by the run, or who were worried about the girls' welfare, both moral and physical.

There is no way the school principal can condone it. But that is probably part of the entertainment.

A year of hard work and enterprise capped off with a bit of naughtiness. An authorised grundy run would not have the same cachet.

- The Marlborough Express

Newest First

Oldest First