AS Interschools has come and gone with some tears and some jubilation, I would like to comment on something that I found quite disturbing during the past weekend.
On Saturday night the adults went out and either celebrated with drinks or had a wake with drinks. The disturbing thing was that the kids seem to have done the same thing.
On Saturday we went out with some friends and the venue we visited next to Zion Street was buzzing with under age drinking teenagers.
I know that some of them were under age (meaning under18) because I recognised the faces. The boys were not the only culprits as the young ladies (!) from local schools were well represented.
Surely kids should not be served alcohol – fake ID’s aren’t that easy to get in Paarl and some of the “floating” kids looked 14 or 15.
Don’t they have to show ID at these places?
I know it is not a school problem or responsibility, but isn’t there a way that the kids can be entertained in a safe and alcohol free venue for their afterparty?
The problem seems to be the 14 to 17-year-olds because they have nowhere to go.
Some youngsters were wandering the street at about twelve when surely they should have been home by then - also little faces I recognised from school.
I am a parent of three sons and I know kids will be kids and so forth, but surely we as parents have a responsibility to at least know where our kids are on a night like last Saturday – when the party your child was supposed to attend was cancelled because 150 instead of 50 kids rocked up, where did he/she go?
Just a concerned parent
