[Post redacted because it was written before the announcement of a death during the event.]
June 12, 2011
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And now someone has died… deja vu?
Comment by Brad Heap — June 12, 2011 @ 2:04 pm
A King’s College student has died following a boozy ball party at Eden Park last night – the fourth death of a King’s student in 17 months.
The school has opened its chapel for counselling for students affected by the tragedy.
It is understood David Gaynor – son of business commentator Brian Gaynor – died early today, some distance from the ball venue.
Very Sad news….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10731806
Comment by andy (the other one) — June 12, 2011 @ 2:13 pm
Maybe In Vino Veritas is more appropriate.
Comment by Gregor W — June 12, 2011 @ 2:15 pm
oh my god! another one. That is awful… I am sure there weren’t that many fatalities at Kings in the whole 5 years I was at highschool (although I didn’t attend Kings – just knew a few (wildly overprivileged) kids who went there.
Comment by Amy — June 12, 2011 @ 2:30 pm
I assume the story has changed somewhat since you wrote this piece?
Your link:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5133225/School-ball-marred-by-drunken-revellers
take you to the story:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5133225/Death-after-Kings-College-ball
Which would show Jonathan Marshall’s decision to be highly prescient.
Comment by Graeme Edgeler — June 12, 2011 @ 2:40 pm
I’m surprised the kids were allowed to get thowing-up-drunk at the official ball – when I was at King’s the balls were relatively low-key – surrounded by parents and teachers and only allowed a few beers, we had to sneak out to drink from hip-flasks. It wasn’t til the after-ball that the real drinking started, and even then I can’t remember anyone needed an ambulance, let alone dying.
If I was a parent I’d be pretty worried that they managed to let things get out of hand at the official school-run event, especially after all the recent deaths.
Comment by gazzaj — June 12, 2011 @ 2:57 pm
So sad. The kids know the consequences yet do it all again. Rich or poor. Seems that there are no boundaries to the wastage.
Mind you, I would doubt the J Marshall credibility.
Comment by ianmac — June 12, 2011 @ 3:00 pm
Re the school motto, it’s not entirely inconsistent with binge drinking… there was a definite “you will finish all 12 of your beers” attitude when out drinking. How much that has to do with the school’s “harden up” philosophy I don’t know.
Comment by gazzaj — June 12, 2011 @ 3:06 pm
Meh. The only real difference between my provincial town high school’s munters 30 years ago and King’s College munters today is that King’s munters can afford a lot more piss.
Comment by Psycho Milt — June 12, 2011 @ 3:56 pm
The most important distinction between high decile schools and lower decile schools is the expensiveness of the drugs on offer.
I must say, I am puzzled how the Kings motto applies to their female pupils.
Comment by MeToo — June 12, 2011 @ 5:21 pm
Stuff: “He had been at the ball. He went home with his father and there has been some sort of accident,”
Shall we not assume that the death was alcohol-related?
Comment by Progger — June 12, 2011 @ 8:32 pm
“9.Meh. The only real difference”
yeah but how many died?
For all the piss we sunk at my humble state educational institute, as far as I know we are all still here in spite of that.
Comment by gn — June 12, 2011 @ 8:52 pm
There was a big trend of doing away with school balls in the 1970′s, they were seen as naff and the cause of to much trouble. Seems what goes around, comes around.
Comment by Sanctuary — June 12, 2011 @ 9:18 pm
“…A newspaper reported this morning some students at the ball were heavily intoxicated after a pre-ball party at former Fonterra chief executive and PGG Wrightson chairman Craig Norgate’s house…”
Will there be a full police investigation of this? Or is Mr. Norgate of a class in this country that nowadays seems to be sufficiently rich to be above the law?
Comment by Sanctuary — June 12, 2011 @ 9:27 pm
Am I not the only one to sense that the ‘Stepford gloss’ is coming off certain top-decile schools? The Grammar Nazi debacle seemed only the tip of the iceberg. And Norgate’s son was caught a couple of years ago for tagging.
There’s also the panty-drawer rummaging of Marshall, who seems to be in denial after the Darren Hughes story turned out to be anything but.
On the other extreme you probably get Boyz N The Hood or Dangerous Minds.
Comment by DeepRed — June 13, 2011 @ 12:04 am
My condolences to the Gaynors – bloody tragic.
I hope our Education Minister will suspend the Board of Trustees and Principal at Kings (on full pay) and put a Commissioner in place – there have been too many deaths of Kings kids recently. It seems to imply a lack of proper concern and diligent intervention by the Board and Principal. If it turns out to be unavoidable, reinstate them, but if not….
Comment by bob — June 13, 2011 @ 12:58 am
Sanctuary – you mean Craig Norgate is higher class than Annette King? I’m sure he’d be delighted to hear it.
Comment by Adam — June 13, 2011 @ 9:11 am
A single death is a tragedy. Multiple deaths are… either simply a statistical anomaly, or a cluster. And, of course, fodder for moral outrage.
We’ve all done stupid things. Kids at my school wrapped themselves around a tree, others hung themselves from them. Others had their stoumachs pumped. Nobody died from alcohol poisoning, but it could have happened. This was not a particularly unusual school.
Comment by George D — June 13, 2011 @ 9:48 am
I also doubt that if 4 teens had died from a lower decile school they would be referred to as ‘beautiful boys’.
Comment by max — June 13, 2011 @ 10:19 am
“I also doubt that if 4 teens had died from a lower decile school they would be referred to as ‘beautiful boys’.”
I think if they were Maori or Pacific Islanders, they would be described as beautiful boys. I also think some people whose kids went to high-decile schools would ridicule whoever described them that way.
Comment by Kahikatea — June 13, 2011 @ 10:26 am
@max #19: that is, if it even made the news at all. The unwritten Missing White Woman Rule (TM) dictates that one decile-10 death is equivalent to about 100 decile-1 deaths.
Comment by DeepRed — June 13, 2011 @ 11:35 am
In view of his recent comments on spawn of beneficiaries, just wondering what Mr Holmes’ opinions are on this…
Comment by Leopold — June 13, 2011 @ 11:45 am