TOOLIES, NOT RAIN, ONLY DAMPENER ON SCHOOLIES
Four arrested for possession on Saturday night
A WET start to Schoolies week wasn’t enough to stop these girls from enjoying their first post-school days on the Gold Coast.
Travelling all the way from Penrith in western Sydney 18-year-old Georgia Burgess and her friends’ mood could only be ruined by one thing – toolies, the nonschoolies taking an interest in the teen girls.
“The weather doesn’t matter, the rain makes us party harder,” Georgia said.
“We are just going to live it up and embrace the rain. Honestly the only thing that has been annoying is the toolies hanging around.
“But we have been staying away from them.
The group of girls say they have even caught a few “creeps” trying to take photos of them on the beach.
“They have no shame, they just take their phones out and aim it right at you,” she said. “They are trying to pass themselves off as 20 year olds but they look 30 going on 40, – it is pretty embarrassing for them.”
Despite the unwanted approaches, Georgia said she felt safe, thanks to the number of volunteers out and about.
“It has been fine. There are so many Red Frogs around the place and we are all staying together,” she said.
“Besides the toolies are pretty easy to spot.”
The official Schoolies program was delayed momentarily on Saturday night as organisers battled with the downpour.
The showers are set to clear into the week, making way for fine conditions.
Rain will only return Wednesday according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
SCHOOLIES at Surfers Paradise have been told not to do drugs because the “cooks” who make them are dangerous and have no interest in the teenagers’ health.
Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Brian Wilkins said there were six arrests on Saturday night: Four drug possession and two public nuisance charges.
“Don’t do drugs, we have got a very strong focus down here on drug enforcement,” he said.
“Our main aim is to keep them all safe.”
Mr Wilkins said that despite the Saturday night arrests, overall they schoolies were behaving themselves.
“They were well-behaved ... four of them were minor drug possession charges and a couple of public nuisance,” he said.
“I believe the drug charges related to were MDMA (ecstasy) and cannabis.”
He said it was a quiet night for schoolies.
“However, there were 21 non-schoolies who were arrested and the majority of those were also for minor drug possession,” he said.
“This is not a place to come if you want to distribute drugs or for prowling on school leavers – you will be identified and targeted by police.”
Police minister Mark Ryan said the government had no plans to introduce pill testing in Queensland to inform partygoers what was in their illicit substances before they took them.
“There is a simple message out there and that is the only good drug to take is no drug at all,” he said.
“You never know what is in that drug, those drugs are so dangerous and for you to put your life in the hands of a stranger who won’t tell you the ingredients, who is only there to make money off you, is a very foolhardy choice indeed.
“There is a significant focus in the Queensland Police Service into drug detection and we can see from the arrests as well as the major operations that were closed down before Schoolies that we are taking strong action against drugs.”
Mr Ryan said said parents should be reassured most schoolies were making good decisions.
“This festival is an opportunity for our school leavers to show good decision-making,” he said.
“We can see from last night we had huge crowds, record crowds, and only a small number of them made bad decisions.”