Drugs Council says alcohol fundraisers at schools must stop

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 3 2011

The Australian National Council on Drugs called for an end to “wine drives” and alcohol fundraisers at schools. The Federal Government peak advisory body on drug use has warned schools in an open letter by chairman Dr John Herron that selling wine to parents to raise funds may be sending the wrong message to students.

An online research revealed that this practice is common in most independent schools at Geelong. The education union confirmed it is also common at many public schools, along with parent functions where alcohol is served.

The Australian National Council on Drugs said research shows that children are all too aware of the place of alcohol in social interactions. The white paper said, “Promoting the use of wine and alcohol products through school fundraising events, in which children are involved, further confirms this link, and may be seen by students as contradicting messages provided through school policy and education about alcohol.” It urged schools to “consider the impact the use of alcohol in fundraising activities may have on the student population”.

Dr Herron said, “We’re hoping this will be a wake-up call for parents…We’re all talking about binge drinking in the young but the reality is that alcohol consumption throughout Australia has gone up in every age group…You can’t on the one hand criticize drinking in young people and on the other hand do fundraising to promote alcohol - it doesn’t make sense.” Dr Herron said the issue was brought to the attention of the ANCD after just one parent wrote in. This prompted two years of investigating with the help of the Australian Secondary Principals Association (ASPA).

The Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Mary Bluett said it was unfortunate public schools were forced to sell anything, be it chocolate or wine, “to supplement the money that we don’t get from various governments”. “I sympathies with the position that’s been put (by the ANCD) but increasingly it does become an issue as to how you can fundraise in a pure way,” she said. Events where alcohol is served were an important way for schools to bond with parents which is important for their child’s education, she added.

“I’m hoping to stimulate debate, to start people thinking about it, talking about it and more constructively, stop doing it,” Dr Herron said. In addition to the letter, a guideline booklet called School Fundraising and Alcohol, created by the ANCD and the ASPA, is now available online. The negative impact of alcohol costs the country $36 billion annually and affects the brain development of teenagers, Dr Herron reminded.