Hasseris Gymnasium serves beer to steer students from risky parties

Hasseris Gymnasium serves beer to first-year students at a school party, rejecting Aalborg Municipalities policy of banning alcohol during the first three months of upper secondary school, DR reports.

The school says the approach is intended to prevent controversial initiation parties, which can lead to heavy drinking and violence.

Principal Ole Droob said most young people have already tried alcohol when they begin upper secondary school. If alcohol is banned at school, he said, students will instead gather at places such as the harbour, the open-air swimming pool or local parks, where they cannot be supervised.

On the first Friday of the school year, Hasseris Gymnasium holds a large party for new students. They eat together at the school and can drink beer if they wish.

“That way, we can ensure that they drink relatively little during the evening. And if someone becomes too intoxicated, we can call their parents so they can be collected,” Droob said.

Student council chair Victoria May Weng Wilson said she felt safe at her own introductory party two years ago because she was surrounded by her new network and teachers were working at the bar.

She agreed with the principal that banning alcohol would not make sense. Instead, students should develop a healthy relationship with drinking, she said. Older students also have a responsibility to show new students that it is acceptable to drink, but equally acceptable not to drink.