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A muck-up day scavenger hunt devised by students at a Sydney private school has made headlines due to the string of illegal tasks it challenged revellers to complete.
The list, created by Year 12 students at Shore School in North Sydney and dubbed the “Triwizard Shorenament”, was reported to police earlier this week.
It contained prompts to take part in a range of illegal activities, including drug use, assaults and trespassing.
Students planned to meet at Waverton Park, form teams, and travel around the surrounding areas to see how many items on the list they could tick off.
All worth points, the scavenger hunt included challenges like "spit on homeless man", "snort a line" and “eat a live small animal”.
Another prompt stated: “Get arrested. Must go to the police station in cuffs."
A Shore spokesperson told Sydney Morning Herald, which obtained the list and instructions, that it was "deeply concerned at the unlawful or inappropriate nature of the activities".
"As soon as the school became aware of the document police were informed and an urgent communication was sent to all Year 12 parents instructing that under no circumstances are Shore boys to participate in the activities specified," the spokesperson said.
"Consequences for any boys who do participate will be severe and could include the loss of their place at the school."
Other tasks flagged for the muck-up day were legal and comparatively harmless, such as “human bowling ball”, “wax your armpit” and “team photo with security guard”.
A NSW Police spokesperson said while police respect the tradition of muck-up days, “students must take necessary precautions so celebrations do not get out of hand and become dangerous”.
"While pranks are often part and parcel of the day, don't engage in any behaviour that risks your welfare or the safety of others,” the spokesperson said. “The police are not here to spoil the fun, but they will take action if deemed necessary."
Their response drew ire on social media.
NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos shared a tweet by journalist and columnist Julia Baird, which posited: “What if a group of Muslim teens were found to be planning to "whack" the genitals of strangers, "get with" under-15s, have sex with "Asian" or Anglo women, spit on the homeless, "shit on a train", rip the head off a pigeon?”
Baird added: "You could only suggest such a stupid thing if you had been basted in a culture of impunity and believed the law was a thing to duck and flirt with,” she explained.
The school seemed to agree. In the letter to parents, headmaster Dr Timothy Petterson said the illegal and harmful tasks on the list “portray an arrogant sense of entitlement and an underlying attitude that the School finds deeply offensive”.
“This is not who we are as a school.”
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