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2009/06: Is muck-up day a significant problem in Australian schools??
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right: An ABC Lateline report on Xavier College's suspension of VCE students after alleged bad behaviour on "muck-up" day.
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What they said...
'The media is in the business of finding a story, and therefore they keep looking round and round and round until they find something - all you need is one student to make everyone's day'
The principal of St Patricks College, Ballarat, Dr Peter Casey
'If muck-up day behaviour results in students gaining a criminal conviction then they may find that the careers they wished to follow are no longer available to them'
New South Wales Deputy Commissioner David Owens
The issue at a glance
On October 20, 2008, all 250 of Xavier's College's Year 12 students were suspended from the last three days of classes, after a boisterous game on the school oval resulted in one student being taken to hospital with leg fractures.
After their suspension Xavier students then allegedly jumped on cars and frightened residents in the inner-eastern suburb of Kew, causing $5,000 damage to one car. Xavier College is a highly respected Catholic boys' school located in Kew, a prosperous Melbourne suburb.
The behaviour of the boys involved was widely condemned, including by the Victorian premier, John Brumby, and there were calls for muck-up day to be officially banned. However, there are those who consider popular and media responses to muck-up day activities are exaggerated. They claim the day presents no significant problems.
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