A 17-year-old boy is the second person to be charged over balcony-hopping during Schoolies celebrations on Queenslands Gold Coast. Police claim they spotted the teenager on level 11 of a Surfers Paradise high-rise last night. Meanwhile, an 18-year-old man from New South Wales is due to face court at Southport this morning over a separate balcony-hopping incident in Surfers Paradise on Saturday. Police allege they received information there were foot marks on the railings of four adjoining balconies on the eighth level of a high-rise building on The Esplanade in Surfers Paradise. Both teenagers have been charged with unregulated high-risk activity. Police yesterday warned Schoolies revellers that climbing across balconies was dangerous. Thousands of schoolies have gathered in the tourist strip since the weekend and police say they are generally pleased with their behaviour. Acting Chief Superintendent Des Lacy said on the first night of celebrations, two people were evicted from the Hilton after management identified they were balcony-hopping. Management at the Islander in Surfers Paradise also evicted several schoolies for balcony-hopping since the weekend. Theres a substantial financial loss that theyve experienced, plus their Schoolies activities have come to a quick halt, he said. Superintendent Lacy says officers will continue to charge people who climb between balconies on buildings. He says police are acting in the best interests of everyone, including young revellers. At 17 years of age, I dont think they understand the consequences of their actions, he said. By us taking a hard-line stance on it, hopefully the message will get out that they need to think twice. Yesterday, Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek, who is also the Member for Surfers Paradise, said balcony-hopping was a dangerous practice. People have spent a lot of money and have already been booted out of their units, he said. The danger, of course, of climbing over balconies are things that I just want to implore parents to make sure that they pass on these messages about safety to their kids. We just dont want to see tragedy marring the week for thousands of school leavers who want to get on and should be able to get on with the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, 15 other schoolies have been arrested on the Gold Coast overnight. Two teenagers were detained on drug charges. The others are mostly accused of public nuisance and street offences. But Mark Reaburn, from the Schoolies Advisory Group, says arrests are down on previous years. Unfortunately the focus seems to be on the kids that are arrested and those kids are stupid and will be dealt with by the police and by the courts, he said. Our focus is on the overwhelming majority of kids who are doing the right thing and having the time of their lives and doing it safely #WHATACUNT
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 03:44:44 +0000