Isn't this the educational establishment that our prolific historian Dean attended,



Mass suspension of 'wild' pupils

The entire graduating class at an exclusive Australian boys school has been suspended over "unacceptable" end-of-term antics.

Up to 100 of 250 Year 12 students at Xavier College, Melbourne, allegedly took part in the "muck-up day" trouble.

They ran through the school wearing only their school ties as G-strings, and set off fireworks at a nearby railway station, media reports say.

Classes have been cancelled until Wednesday, the scheduled final day.

The trouble began at lunchtime on Monday - "muck-up day", an unofficial tradition of graduating students taking part in end-of-term pranks and other activities.

Police said they received numerous complaints relating to up to 100 students running rampage in the neighbourhood.
They were said to have harassed drivers and disrupted traffic, and there are also allegations that vehicles were damaged.

The students - aged 17 and 18 - are also accused of running semi-naked through the school grounds and setting off fireworks at the nearby Balaclava railway station.
One student was admitted to hospital with multiple fractures in his leg after a playground game reportedly got out of hand.

One neighbourhood resident wrote to The Age newspaper alleging the students were drunk and badly behaved.

"Their behaviour was disgraceful," the man said.

"They were blind drunk and some of them could barely stand. My kids have been through muck-up day, but I've never seen anything like that."

In response the school has cancelled all classes until Wednesday, which would have been the final day of teaching.

Exams are due to begin at the end of the month for the Year 12 students, said to pay A$16,000 (US$11,000; £6,500) a year in fees to attend the Roman Catholic school.

In a statement, the school said the boys had "contravened the boundaries of sensible behaviour" while playing a game, and that the "unacceptable" conduct had forced it to cancel remaining classes.

It did not refer to the trouble off-campus, but police have threatened criminal charges against the pupils involved.

There is some information about Xavier College supplied by Dean (and others) here

http://www.network54.com/Forum/198833/thread/1140311508/last-1140892210/Goodbye+%3E%3E+The+Cane

and here

http://www.network54.com/Forum/198833/thread/1060900088/last-1061628996/More+School+History+(long!)

I have to say that the behaviour of the Xavier College students seems no worse than that which, when I was that sort of age, was expected under similar circumstances from both public school boys and older students at our ancient Universities.

At least Xavier College doesn't seem to have adopted the dreadful imported American 'Prom' which has become the norm as a school leaving celebration at comprehensive schools in the UK!

Only very slightly tongue in cheek!

Yes, I am an Old Xaverian - I did my VCE in 1992. Muck up day was a tradition back then. It was before. It has been since. Most boys don't take it too far, but there's often been a minority that go too far and there seems to have been such a case this year.

From what I've heard, it was about 30 of the 250 Years 12s from this year, who've caused the problems. That's a pretty high proportion, but most didn't do these things. And contrary to the reports in a number of newspapers, the school didn't suspend the entire Year 12 class. It suspended classes which is quite a different thing. Quite a few schools send their Year 12 class home early without previously warning them of the date, or in advance of the date they have informed them of to disrupt the planning or execution of major muck ups. It's not suspension and the media's misrepresentation is disturbing, because some of these kids will soon be sitting interviews for university placements or jobs and if they weren't involved in any of the disruptive incidents, they don't deserve to have the people interviewing them believing they were recently suspended from school. Not to mention the fact that any who were involved and do wind up with a formal suspension as a result might find it easier to shrug it off, and avoid consequences of their actions.

There's been a lot of other incidents at other schools this week as well - some of which have got some media attention, although the media really doesn't seem interested in reporting a lot of them - I guess 'Students Misbehave At Normaltown Secondary College' doesn't sell as much dogfood as 'Students Misbehave At Snobtown Grammar' but there has just been a decent report on a bombscare as muckup day activities at one state secondary school (which I won't name - because its innocent students don't deserve to be tarred with the same brush as the guilty, anymore than Xavier's do) involved the placement of suspicious packages.

As for not having a Prom - Xavier is an all-boys school (except at the lowest primary levels - a recent development viewed with horror by many Old Xavs) so it could be a bit awkward - in seriousness, there are dances arranged with Genazzanno, and more broadly, but they have a fairly long and established tradition behind them that have nothing to do with anything American. Here in Australia at least, it seems to be the schools with no traditions of their own that seek to copy those seen in movies and films from the US. For good or ill (because muck up day is, itself, a tradition) those that have their own don't borrow much.

Isnt this what used to be called around 1974 "Streaking"?

Dean still has positive feelings towards his old school, it seems. Nowadays it is hard to stage any sort of prank that does not offend or have potential for injury or damage.

Perhaps Dean and others can provide suggestions as to what might be done, or was done in the old days?

Some of the old pranks resulted in canings and these seemed to placate citizens who might otherwise have been outraged. Boys in g-strings would be quite vunerable.

Years back some local lads climbed a tall chimney at a boiler house and hung a bicycle from the top. It had to be removed for safety reasons. This involved bringing in a very large crane and a team of steeplejacks at considerable cost. No one thought to ask the boys for help. They would have done the job for nothing. Many are still puzzled as to how they managed the climb. I know but am not telling.

At MGS, in 1968, an abandoned Mini was got onto the school roof, above the school hall. A distance, by the way, of around 45 feet off the ground.

No great feat you may say, if you think we are talking about skirts. You might or might not want to know, if that were the case, about how girl and skirt were parted.

No we aren't-this was a 1963 Mini Cooper, which was fastened there with clamps and ropes, specially stolen for the occasion.

And I left in 1970, by the way, at which stage the prepetrators of this stunning achievement were still unknown. And rightly are going to remain so, from those involved in reconnaisance work prior to and during the operation.

I don't think the citizenry of Maidstone was outraged. The Headbastard was!


Steve M

KK said: "Many are still puzzled as to how they managed the climb. I know but am not telling." Good for you, KK. After all we don't want to create mass unemployement amongst steeplejacks and industrial roped access technicians do we - lots of my climbing acquaintances make good money in those trades when they are a bit short of cash!

Seriously, must be something about bicycles and leaving day stunts. At my own school bicycles and strings of sausages were by far the most common items to descend slowly from the upper levels of the hall in front of the headmaster amidst the solemnities of the final assembly. The bicycles concerned were usually 'liberated' from the staff bicycle shed, where some truly ancient monstrosities were parked. That's bicycles, not staff!

My school takes a 'zero-tolerance' approach to muck up day activities, and the public furore surrounding the incidents at Xavier College this week illustrates a primary reason why we take that approach. There are elements in the Melbourne media who absolutely love the chance to focus on any incident involving indiscipline at an elite school as being some sort of sign that there are serious problems at the school, while they simultaneously ignore far, far worse incidents in the state school system. I am not saying that what happened at Xavier this week was not newsworthy, nor that it shouldn't have been accurately reported but I really don't think it was worthy of being a front page news story in both major Melbourne newspapers for two consecutive days, nor the first story on one networks evening news broadcast for two days, as well as having been in every single newspaper every day since. It should not have been that big a story and if it hadn't have been an APS school it wouldn't have been.

Personally, I am not entirely in favour of our school's zero-tolerance approach. I support it because it's a policy arrived at by consensus after discussions in which my views were seriously considered, but did not emerge as the consensus view. Our policy is to treat any muckup day activity unless clearly endorsed by the school as a major breach of discipline to be punished accordingly. Even activities that seem relatively harmless pranks. We'd like to be able to trust our students enough to rely on their common sense not to take matters too far and for the vast majority of boys, we probably could trust them in that way. But the small number we couldn't could do immense damage to themselves, to their school, and to others. A few years ago, a boy died as a result of muck up day activities at one school and another boy is serving fourteen years for his murder. One life lost and another ruined. That's the worst case, but there have been numerous others involving cruelty to animals and similar very undesirable activities.

So we take a zero-tolerance approach where any muckup day activity leads to significant punishment and few boys engage in any, and even fewer cross the line into unacceptable territory. At least so far. I don't think there's any guarantee that our approach is working - it looks like it is because nothing serious has happened yet.

The truth is, this is something our boys traditionally do, and we're a school where tradition is taken seriously. We're fighting against that and against an attitude among some boys that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and its worth being punished for. We have a few like that each year who do it anyway regardless of the consequences because they think it's worth it, and unless we want to be totally tyrannical and expel them for what on any other day would be a minor thing, or even just an amusing prank, there's a limit to what we can control. And there may even be an element of 'in for a penny, in for a pound' - when they know they'll be punished even if they remain reasonably sensible, what's the point in remaining reasonably sensible. I think for the most art our policy restrains those who'd be reasonably restrained without it. I'm not sure it does much at all with those who are most likely to cross the line.

Except that it does seem to be working. I didn't think it would. But it's now worked pretty well for five years. Or if it hasn't worked, something else has. Or we've been lucky.

No VCE 'muck-up' for Xavier College
Article from: Sunday Herald
December 21, 2008 12:00am

XAVIER College's bad-boy class of 2008 - suspended en masse amid scenes of drunken revelry - has outperformed its predecessors.

The year 12 students did so well it has jokingly been suggested that the private Catholic school should also suspend next year's VCE class.

In October, Xavier put all 240 senior students in the sin bin after muck-up day mayhem left one student in hospital with a broken leg.

The move prompted balaclava-clad students to run amok at Kew Junction and Glenferrie Rd, pelting pedestrians with eggs.

Residents contacted police to report a "wild mob" of intoxicated teens were destroying letterboxes and street signs and throwing cans and beer bottles.

A four-wheel drive also received $5000 damage.

But after hitting the beers, students hit the books. Almost half achieved results in the state's top 10 per cent, with ENTER scores of more than 90.

Three achieved the highest ENTER score of 99.95.

"May our future years be encouraged and motivated by the individual and group achievements of the Class of 2008," Director of Studies, Elizabeth Smith, wrote to parents during the week.

Xavier spokesman Graham Sharp said the school's results were the best it had achieved in 12 years, prompting suggestions it should suspend next year's class as well.

"That's been put to us," he said. "But we're not looking to create a precedent."

Several students who posed for a muck-up day photo, which appeared on the front of the Herald Sun, said they felt vindicated.

"Three guys in that photo got ENTER scores of over 95," one said.

Children's court lawyer Liz Dowling, who represents some of Victoria's most disadvantaged children, said: "When my clients act the way those kids did they get sentenced to youth training centres or they end up in care."

See the old CP really works then.......

So a strict regime brough good results? The boys knuckled down and achieved?

It was no accident that schools, especially boys schools, were highly structured and disciplined in earlier times. This was and is how (most) boys do best. The school cane was and is a very useful tool when dealing with teenage boys. It is quick and painless compared to the alternatives, and well tolerated by most boys if used consistently and fairly.

Persaktely, if applied fairly.
Truth is that apart from lets say premeditated theft or violence there is no need whatsoever for it under normal circumstance.
Anyone involved in remedial teaching of the disadvantaged would inform that there is always a reason for antisocial behaviour or truancy beyond the control of the aparent miscreant.
All to easy to cane and consider it solved.

"I guess 'Students Misbehave At Normaltown Secondary College' doesn't sell as much dogfood as 'Students Misbehave At Snobtown Grammar' "

When you set yourself up as the "elite" and "best of the best" then expect that the standards for you will be likewise be a higher bar.