Every year, thousands of South Australian teens descend on Victor Harbor to celebrate the completion of their secondary education at Schoolies. Last weekend, approximately 3500 school leavers crowded into the festival site riding high on the spirits of their achievements. With such high volumes of excited teens running around, there’s bound to be just a little tiny bit of disorderliness. But, the question is, what did police discover in 2024?
Well, South Australia’s class of 2024 graduates earned a “pass” at Schoolies this November after Operation Schoolies produced a relatively small number of offences in the Victor Harbor region. Focusing on community, road and school leaver safety, South Australia Police conducted Operation Schoolies in the region between Friday 22 and Sunday 24 November 2024.
In total, nine leavers were arrested throughout the weekend. Six of them were school leavers, arrested for offences including disorderly behaviour, loitering and breach of bail. Three non-school leavers were also arrested for offences including loitering, disorderly behaviour and returning to licensed premises after being ejected.
There were 58 school leavers and one non-school leaver expiated for drinking in dry zones. Police detected seven school leavers for drug related offences.
During the operation period, police made 58 road safety offence detections between Goolwa and Victor Harbor, with 7 offence detections made by drivers aged between 17 and 18.
Police also received one report of indecent assault by a school leaver.
Operation Commander Superintendent Joanne Howard commented she was generally satisfied with the behaviour of most school leavers.
“Our major concern was that people may behave in a way that might cause serious injury or a loss of life at schoolies,” said Superintendent Howard.
“It is pleasing this year’s school leavers have had a great time and returned home safely, ready to start the next chapter of their lives.
“Police conducted numerous traffic-related operations around Schoolies to maintain safe road use.
“We would like to thank the Victor Harbor community for their positive engagement with school leavers and acknowledge Encounter Youth’s Green Team volunteers’ amazing contribution to this event.”
On the whole, both the police and the local community in the Victor Harbor region are pleased with how the Schoolies weekend turned out, with attendees behaving well in the dry zones and as patrons of local pubs and camping grounds. To the 2024 Schoolies attendees, congratulations on earning your pass.
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