School had right to be fun police
When I first heard about the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board opposing a liquor licence for a primary school fundraiser, I was incensed.
Port Ahuriri School has been holding a wine and food festival for the past 10 years, usually on a Friday evening. Classes are officially over but there are kids around as many accompany their parents to the festival.
The DHB’s medical officer of health, Dr Rachel Eyre, has been dead against the school being granted a temporary liquor licence on the basis that consumption of alcohol on school grounds in the presence of children is inappropriate.
So far, so thin-lipped wowser.
Why try to prevent a fun night out for families involving food and yes, okay, wine?
As far as I could make out there has never been an unpleasant incident as a result of parents getting pie-eyed at the festival, and there seemed to be no good reason why the medical officer of health was getting all righteous and sanctimonious about parents having a good time raising much-needed money for their primary school.
But then I read the comments from former Children’s Commissioner and Hawke’s Bay paediatrician, Dr Russell Wills.
He quoted the statistic that Hawke’s Bay is in the top three district health boards for hazardous drinkers per capita.
He said the number of people needing hospital care as a direct result of alcohol has risen by nearly 100 per cent between 2009 and 2016, with an associated cost of $3 million.
I’m not suggesting for a second the parents of Port Ahuriri school are among the hazardous drinkers that Wills was referring to.
But I can understand why the medical officer of health might find the normalisation of alcohol hard to take when she and the rest of the medical team spend so much time — and so much of
●