Dunedin North Intermediate principal Heidi Hayward said the behaviour of students was generally reasonable — but each year St Patrick’s Day brought trouble.
Amidst widespread partying across North Dunedin yesterday, a severely intoxicated man arrived at the school and got very aggressive when asked to leave about 1pm, Ms Hayward said.
He was "absolutely off his chops", she said.
The incident had taken up an enormous amount of energy, with her, a teacher and four police officers running around after the intruder, who at one point scaled a wall to Lindsay Creek.
"He wasn’t your average funny drunk," Ms Hayward said.
Last year, she found a bottle of vodka, a phone and a wallet in the schoolyard and while it had been easy to identify the culprit, the spirits were a danger to pupils.
The activities of St Patrick’s Day went beyond harmless shenanigans and into the realm of dumb, immature and disruptive behaviour, she said.
"I know that the police have been proactive about it, I know the university is being proactive about it, but you know, we’ve had students die in the past," Ms Hayward said.
Early morning binge drinking, walking out in front of cars and scaling walls was "a recipe for death", she said.
"I think as a community, we have to say ‘this is our city, if you want to come here and study then grow up and read the room — this is not appropriate behaviour’," Ms Hayward said.
She had it on reasonably good authority that yesterday’s intruder was a student and she believed the majority of those involved in St Patrick’s Day chaos across the city were too.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said the man was believed to have consumed a combination of drugs and alcohol.
He was arrested for doing an indecent act and given a blanket to wear by officers after stripping off all his clothes, Snr Sgt Bond said.
An email sent to parents of pupils by the school yesterday afternoon disputed that the man had been naked.
A person was also arrested for throwing a bottle on Castle St, Snr Sgt Bond said.
Their presence would continue through the evening but mid-afternoon rain was expected to put a dampener on festivities.
The weather would hopefully encourage partygoers to head inside, dry off and go to bed, with some some food and non alcoholic beverages to finish off the day.
The level of broken glass on Castle St was disappointing and appeared to stem from the popularity of green drinks, which tended to come in bottles.
There had been a number out-of-towners who had been identified and spoken to about minor infractions, but police had been proactive about reminding them of the potential consequences.
People on roofs had been spoken to, as alcohol and heights did not mix especially given the serious injuries that happened last year, Snr Sgt Bond said.
The two arrests were not the only incidents which kept emergency services busy yesterday.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman said a crew from Lookout Point station extinguished a couch fire in Leith St about 8.45am.
Firefighters were also called to the Otago Polytechnic Student Village about 2pm, after a small fire caused students to evacuate.
A police spokeswoman said officers were called to reports of bottles being thrown at the intersection of Forth St and Union St East about 7.45am.
Another report was received about the same time, from a driver who said bottles were thrown at a van at the intersection of Castle and Howe Sts.
Reports were received of people walking in Butts Rd and behaving in a vaguely threatening manner about 3.10pm, the spokeswoman said.
University of Otago proctor Dave Scott said the priority was safety, both for the students and the public.
He acknowledged the large numbers of students partying at Brackens Lookout were not ideal and would require effort to clean up, but it was better than students running across the state highway.
"If not here, where?," Mr Scott said.
Glass bins had been placed along Lovelock Ave in preparation.
The day was always a big challenge for the University, the city council, Fenz and the public, as it was uncontrolled, he said.
