Student‘ high jinks’ cause Main St. havoc

December 2003

Wexford Gardai received numerous complaints from members of the public about the behaviour of teenage schoolgoers spraying artificial snow on each other on the Main Street last week.

Hundreds of secondary school students converged on the busy street after the Christmas holiday break-up on Tuesday afternoon last, at the height of the festive shopping season.

They brought supplies of fake snow in aerosol cans and celebrated the seasonal school closure by running along the length of Main Street, spraying each other and shoppers who were caught in the firing line.

Dozens of people, including elderly shoppers and young children, had snow sprayed in their eyes on and on their clothes. Before long, Wexford Garda Station was receiving irate reports from annoyed shoppers.

A Black Maria was despatched to the scene and the culprits scattered in all directions. Aerosol cans were confiscated, but no arrests were made.

‘No-one would have minded if they had gathered somewhere away from the Main Street and just sprayed each other, but they caused a lot of annoyance to other people,’ said a garda at the scene.

Gardai spent the afternoon patrolling the crowded Main Street but the teenagers who remained managed to keep a step ahead of the posse.

‘ This is the first year that this has happened on such a large scale,’ said a garda spokesman.

‘ The fact that they were all let out of school for the Christmas holiday at exactly the same time might have contributed to it, but at the same time, and to be fair to the schools, they are not responsible for the behaviour of the students outside the school gates.’

The garda spokesman said that the activity amounted to anti-social behaviour, and was in breach of the Public Order Act.

‘Next year, we will apply whatever action is needed. These youngsters will be looking for references and visas in the future, and they may not realise that they are running the risk of a criminal conviction,’ he added.