As thick as two parents
January 17, 2012 at 3:29 am | Posted in Security | 1 CommentTags: alcohol, crowd control, duty of care, event, fight, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, Party Plan Checklist, police, prevention, safe parties, secondary supply, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, violence
Are you really that dumb?
I’ve taken security briefs for hundreds of teen events.
There’s a moment at which I know I’m dealing with parents who are weak, stupid or both.
Here’s how it goes.
Happy families
Parents ask me to visit their property to discuss safety and security measures. Their teenager is often present.
It all starts well as I walk them through my checklist:
- Physical issues of the venue.
- Guest list management.
- Food.
- Police notification.
Everyone’s smiling and supportive.
Until we reach the topic of alcohol.
Cracking the sads
While vocally supporting my alcohol recommendations, the parent’s (hitherto constant) nodding becomes irregular.
The teen breaks eye contact with me and starts glaring at her parents – trying to get their attention.
I describe the best way to provide duty of care to guests: by labelling all alcohol for responsible adults to monitor and control.
The teen becomes sullen, acquires the “cat’s bum look” and stares fiercely at the floor with arms crossed.
I leave the home knowing that at this party, the tail will wag the dog.
NOT a good thing!
Ruining the roost
Within two days, the parents backflip and decide to follow their child’s wise alcohol recommendation: to let all kids bring and drink all they want.
From this moment, the party is doomed.
All that remains is for me, my staff (and perhaps the media) to witness the carnage.
Here’s a breakdown of a recent breakdown. This account is true (and indicative of dozens more).
Countdown to destruction
Guests bring vast amounts of alcohol. Parents are amazed at how much is coming onto their property. (REALLY!)
At about 11 pm, teens start to stagger round the grounds.
A few fall face-first into dog crap.
More start spewing party pies and fairy bread (in that order).
By the time my team and I take control, we have ten teenagers in a room hugging buckets and throwing up.
The parents actually think it’s … FUNNY. That emptying buckets of vomit is laughable. A reaction which, being a parent myself, is beyond my comprehension.
Towards night’s end, kids get abusive and want to fight us, the parents and each other.
At this point, the hosts demand that we risk injury by throwing out the very guests they’ve let get intoxicated; even if it means they may not make it home. Kids walking home from parties is another whole (horrific) post.
I find it tragic that parents who refuse to control alcohol or show duty of care also shirk their responsibilities when things turn ugly.
Rewind
This entire situation can be avoided if parents get some backbone and stop trying to be their teen’s best friend.
It really isn’t rocket science:
- Their house.
- Their mortgage.
- Their rules!
I’m sure if the Coroner called you to explain why you let a teen get so drunk that she choked on her own vomit or died crossing the road, you’d wish you’d listened to me.
My advice isn’t designed to annoy people.
It’s to ensure parties are safe.
Duty of care is your responsibility.
The police can’t help you, as the new minor supply laws don’t cover BYO grog.
So parents,
GROW UP!
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
The facts of life & death
January 4, 2012 at 3:59 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, crowd control, duty of care, event, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, youth
Without data, we’re dead in the water.
I believe out-of-control teen parties are an epidemic. If police start keeping data on them, I’m certain we’ll see improvement. Alas, no Australian police force does.
I’ve sent formal requests to the worst-affected states for police to keep figures for three months:
- Queensland and Western Australia are reviewing my applications.
- Victoria ‘Can’t support anonymous data gathering’ but is happy to give me anecdotal evidence.
- Despite my repeated efforts, New South Wales and the Northern Territory are yet to respond.
Go figure!
Supporting statistics will show how big an issue teen parties have become. We must capture this data so we can all understand exactly:
- How much emergency services time is wasted on out-of-control events.
- The impact they’re having on our community.
- The injuries teens are sustaining.
I’m confident the data will show governments that today’s limited teen and parent education is NOT hitting the mark.
I’ve long believed legislative change is needed to prevent more injury to our kids and communities.
Parents must be held accountable for poorly planned events. Councils must adopt a by-law to foster safe teen events.
Empty threats
You’re probably aware of Corey Worthington’s fiasco. The threat of his being fined $19,000 was just that – it hasn’t happened!
In March 2011, a hacker promoted a party via Facebook. When 200,000 people said they’d attend, police shut it down. They also said the hacker would be charged – that hasn’t happened either.
Right now, the only way we hear of out-of-control teen events is via media reports. Here are just two parties, in two states, in ten days: NSW and WA.
Like most parties gone wrong, they both had the same old recipe:
- No planning.
- No alcohol restriction.
- No security.
You can bet your bottom taxpayer dollar the host parents were first on the phone screaming for police to clean up their mess.
And media reports cover only a small fraction of bad events.
A better way
Last week I assigned staff to eight teen parties. All had the same organised plan. The plan we’ve used at more than 700 successful events. The plan that’s on my submission.
Not one of the events we handled had any trouble, impacted the community or required any emergency services response.
It’s time we got serious about this lethal issue.
Let’s get our facts straight, so we can stop chasing our tails!
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Thrown to the wolves
November 23, 2011 at 6:04 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: accident, alcohol, crowd control, drinking, duty of care, fight, injury, kid, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, Party Plan Checklist, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, violence, youth
Nights need expert handling by a sufficient force of mature, trained professionals.
Throughout my career (13 years at Victoria Police and 6 years specialising in teen events) I’ve seen my share of dreadful things.
These days, I also receive many calls from staff from other security firms.
They call because they’re concerned about the types of teen parties to which their employer is sending them.
I think it’s vital security firms ensure the events they send their staff to are safe.
I’m not just talking alcohol; there are many more issues to worry about, like:
- Pools.
- Balconies.
- Perimeter fencing.
- Exit and entry points.
- Ratio of guests to crowd control staff
Some security firms send just one crowd controller to a party with 100 guests!
How can one person possibly handle a brawl? Or simultaneously patrol dark, unsafe back areas while gatecrashers invade the front and sides?
I recently saw an eastern-suburb party turn pear-shaped.
The teen organiser had been strongly advised to have four crowd controllers. But as he hadn’t budgeted for the event, he went for the cheapest quote.
The result? Just two crowd controllers for 300 kids!
Inevitably, the event was shut down. It was clear the security firm hadn’t done any risk assessment of this party, thus placing guests, hosts, property and even their own staff in danger.
Unfortunately, this case isn’t rare. I liaise with many parents and teens seeking crowd control for their parties. Often they:
- Haven’t budgeted for the event.
- Don’t accept the quote and information given.
- Are too weak to stand up to their kids or peers.
- Don’t insist an alcohol plan is put in place.
They then choose the security firm with the lowest quote who doesn’t care if alcohol is managed.
This firm will ask a few questions (maybe) and send one or two (at most) teenaged crowd controllers, to deal with other teens.
This is a very bad start.
In addition to the crowd controllers being the same age as the host and/or guests, they often lack the experience and maturity to deal with the myriad of dicey situations uncontrolled environments invariably throw up.
It completely defeats the purpose of having security.
Event hosts expect their crowd controllers to:
- Enter the property if guests get too drunk.
- Break up fights that arise from the lack of planning or (backbone) from the parents.
Meanwhile, the ‘responsible adults’ at these events often have a party of their own elsewhere on the property.
I believe security firms must ensure the staff they assign to teen parties operate in a safe environment.
It’s not only their duty to provide a safe workplace under occupational health and safety laws.
It’s also the right and decent thing to do by their staff, their clients
and our community.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Death never takes a holiday
November 2, 2011 at 10:57 pm | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: accident, alcohol, crash, crowd control, death, drinking, duty of care, event, injury, kid, Naomi Oakley, parent, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, tragedy, U-NOME Security
Careful party planning can stop this unwanted guest.
Yet more teenagers died this week.
Seven teens left a Halloween Party in a stolen car and came to grief.
Just 24 hours prior to this, a teenage girl left a party, opted not to get picked up by her parent and got into a boy’s car instead.
Now she’s dead too.
Incredibly, it seems people have forgotten the January 2010 tragedy where five kids died in a vehicle that left a party.
Alcohol was a factor in all these ‘accidents’.
But let’s rewind.
I’ve always believed that if you have adequate safety and security measures at a party, you can prevent tragedy.
You must manage all alcohol at an event, even if it’s BYO.
A host’s duty of care can also extend beyond the event.
Parents organising a party should take reasonable steps to establish how their teenage guests are getting home.
Even if these kids walk out of a party, the question must be asked.
At the very least, doing this may get kids thinking.
You may be able to persuade them take a taxi or wait for parents to collect them.
Managing all aspects of a teen party is extremely important.
If parents don’t have the skills and resources to manage a party properly, they should think about having professional crowd control to monitor and assist them.
By covering every base, we ensure the next teen party doesn’t end in tears.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
What price peace?
October 13, 2011 at 1:02 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, crowd control, drinking, duty of care, event, gang, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, neighbour, police, prevention, safe parties, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, youth
Hundreds of bucks on grog, but not a cent for security!
Another party went feral last week. This time in the well-heeled Melbourne suburb of Kew.
The host parent had called me earlier, but baulked at my $500 quote for full event security.
When I sent one of my staff to watch the night go off the rails, he saw plenty more than $500 worth of booze in play.
This sure makes me wonder about people’s priorities.
So easily avoided
Here’s part of what the host parent wrote to me when declining my services:
‘I have taken on board what you advised and enlisted at least 10 parents help, mainly fathers. So I’m sending up a prayer and hoping for the best this time.’
I replied:
‘Hopefully your neighbours and the Police will understand when it impacts them. Parents are not covered by any sort of insurance if you have a problem with gatecrashers or intoxication. I suggest you will have problems in both these areas.’
‘Hopes and prayers’ indeed!
As it turned out, ‘security’ on the night was a young woman and her boyfriend drinking wine as they checked names off at the door!
By 9 pm, exactly as I predicted, the place was riddled with gatecrashers – hanging round in hostile groups and jumping fences to get in.
Three police call-outs and one drunk, unconscious boy later, I wonder if the parent regretted her decision not to heed my warnings.
$500 could have prevented all this drama and danger.
I ask you: how much is peace of mind (and perhaps a young life) worth?!
Bearing witness
I occasionally send my staff to observe the public impact of parties I consider at risk for failing to take my safety and duty-of-care advice.
The evidence we collect is used to support our push for safe event laws.
The Kew party is now just another statistic.
The sadder fact is, I know it’s only a matter of time until we witness another party-related injury.
Or death.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Your taxes at work
September 19, 2011 at 4:18 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, car, child, crowd control, drinking, duty of care, event, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, neighbour, nightmare, parent, party, police, safe parties, secondary supply, security, teen, teenage, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, youth
This latest party fiasco cost us $5K. Are you having fun yet?
Even when I warned him his party would spiral out of control, a Wheelers Hill kid ignored my advice and held a party last weekend.
As I predicted, it turned ugly. And the emergency services response cost tax payers (you and me) a small fortune.
Words of warning
The boy rang me last Thursday to say he needed security at a basketball party.
I asked a few questions and he said:
- There’d be 150 kids aged 16-18.
- They’d be free to bring alcohol.
- There’d be only one parent present.
I advised him that:
- He’d need four professional staff to keep control.
- He’d also need at least six parents to assist.
- Alcohol would have to be controlled at a central point.
- If he didn’t follow my recommendations, his night would be a nightmare.
The boy seemed surprised.
And didn’t call back.
Storm clouds
I knew this event would go pear-shaped. I informed Glen Waverley Police so they’d at least have some detail on the party when they inevitably responded. Cops HATE flying blind.
Despite giving them this heads up, I still couldn’t relax on the day.
Instead of spending a pleasant Saturday night at home with my family, I felt compelled to observe how this party would unravel.
Fortunately, I was supported by one of my staff who’s similarly ardent about safe teen parties.
We arrived at the boy’s home at 9 pm and were seriously shocked.
The entire property was teeming with teens: at least 170 in the house plus another 100 milling around out the front.
A neighbour was screaming as kids jumped his fence.
Every few minutes, maxi cabs disgorged more kids, while larger groups arrived from the bus stop.
All were carrying beer slabs, massive wine casks and/or bags of pre-mixed drinks.
I thought of their parents. Had ANY asked what sort of party their offspring were attending, or whether there’d be any responsible adults around?
Hell’s teeth
Amid the chaos, I saw only one security person on the front gate. I couldn’t tell if they were professional (trained, safe, insured) or amateur (volatile, dangerous, not liable).
With the frantic neighbour now on the phone, I figured the Police would arrive any minute.
When the first van arrived, the scene was daunting indeed for the two members inside.
Utterly outnumbered, they cautiously emerged clutching their flasks of capsicum spray.
Fearing for them, I let them know my colleague and I were around.
The sole parent was out the front – bawling at the cops to get everyone out.
While they liaised with him, the kids streamed over the road, taking photos next to the Police car as if it were a trophy!
After a very long ten minutes, much-needed back up arrived:
- 6 more Police vans.
- 2 Dog Squad units.
- 1 large brawler van.
It took all this to stop the music and shut the nightmare down.
How there wasn’t a death or serious injury is beyond my comprehension.
Now hear this
Parents MUST get this message before more kids (maybe theirs) die:
There are NO EXCUSES.
You can’t PLEAD IGNORANCE any more.
Do NOT let your child plan a party.
YOU do it.
YOU take responsibility.
The sooner we have teen event legislation, the better.
And don’t think the new minors and alcohol legislation that comes into effect in Feb will save us. It won’t.
Because it doesn’t cover BYO events like this.
Parent’s MUST be made accountable.
It’s YOUR money, Ralph!
At a very conservative estimate, the Police response to this event cost $5000.
Worse, these precious resources were diverted from serious, legitimate crime prevention at the busiest time of the week.
All neighbouring suburbs were stripped of their ability to respond.
Tough luck if YOU needed a divvy van to catch that burglar you heard on Saturday!
You and I are paying for this shameful waste with our taxes.
We’re paying more and getting less.
So, if you can’t do the right thing your kids,
at least do it for yourself!
PS. I got some excellent video footage of this debacle, if you’re interested.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Violence ain’t ‘senseless’
August 29, 2011 at 5:40 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: accident, alcohol, child, crowd control, death, drinking, duty of care, event, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, neighbour, Party Plan Checklist, police, safe parties, secondary supply, security, teen, teenager, U-NOME Security, venue, violence, youth
When it comes to teen party violence, parents are the real clowns.
We hear a lot about ‘senseless violence’.
But when kids get injured at parties, it’s not the violence that’s senseless.
It’s the parents.
With prior planning, parties needn’t suffer any violence.
To me, ‘senseless’ is someone stabbing you in the street.
Car accidents aren’t senseless. Most are due to speed, alcohol, fatigue or other driver error.
The following situations recently came to my attention. All have been called ‘senseless’, when really they’re not.
Birthday bash
An 18-year-old’s parents didn’t want to control alcohol at his birthday party.
They wanted the kids to ‘have fun’.
So they confined their attentions to the front of their home.
Meanwhile, out of sight in a back bedroom, their dear son had sex with a minor.
This boy faces a life-ruining conviction and placement on the sex offender register.
All because his parents didn’t want to set boundaries.
What FUN!
Making sense
A grieving mother, whose son was fatally stabbed outside a party, has asked a judge to send a hard message about the deadly consequences of ‘senseless violence’.
I’m told alcohol wasn’t restricted at this event. Had an alcohol plan been in place, this situation may well have ended differently.
A life could have been saved and a boy prevented from going to jail.
I believe most parents who read this article will think the teen stupid for drinking so much. But what about the parents who let it happen?
This is where the senselessness lies.
Foregone conclusion
Parents near Shepparton held an after-formal party for their kids. Yet again, there was minimal security and no restriction of alcohol. The results?
- Brawls on a neighbour’s property.
- Children and parents terrified in their homes.
- Half a dozen Police units called at 10 pm. They use capsicum spray. Some are injured.
Organisers said, ‘They didn’t know this would happen’. Yet they’d have a very different attitude if there were consequences to their lack of forethought.
Duty of Care is the responsibility of the parents. They must think about consequences of their (lack of) actions.
On the edge
Four teens were hospitalised after a balcony at the party they were attending collapsed.
I believe this tragedy could have been avoided. Again, it was no accident.
Pre-assessments of party venues are necessary to flag physical safety issues.
Most balconies are designed for domestic use only. Our pre-assessment plans forbid parties on balconies and stair wells.
We also cover perimeter fences, pools, alcohol plans and experienced, professional event security. These simple things:
- Prevent most parties from turning ugly.
- Minimise violence in our community.
- Save lives.
- Free our emergency services and judicial system.
If you minimise the risks, you turn things from ‘senseless’ to sensible.
Duty of care
Parents need to show duty of care.
If the new alcohol legislation doesn’t include duty of care and alcohol control, we need to go back to the drawing board and look at my safe event law proposal.
A holistic approach is the best option
Unless we have consequence for parents who don’t exercise duty of care when hosting a party our kids will suffer ever more violence.
A tragic waste of life that’s truly ‘senseless’.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Sweet Sixteen & Utterly Pissed
August 8, 2011 at 7:08 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, booze, car, child, drinking, duty of care, hospital, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, secondary supply, stomach pump, teen, teenager, underage drinking
The ‘before 25 shots’ shot ...
- 16-year-old Sophie* attends a gathering at a friend’s house at 4 pm.
- Sophie drinks a bottle of vodka while the host parents party elsewhere on the property – not caring what’s happening in their home.
- Sophie passes out.
- Her eyes roll back.
- Her breathing becomes laboured.
- Her friends become distressed and wonder if they should ring an ambulance.
- The host parents order the ‘hindrance’ removed from their property!
- Sophie’s friends drag her outside, where a mother waits to collect her child at 7 pm.
- This concerned parent immediately takes Sophie to hospital in her car.
- There Sophie has her stomach pumped and is placed under observation for hours.
- What kind of people are these host parents?
- No duty of care for the kids in their home. No supervision. No ambulance. Nothing.
- Letting children drink so much. At that hour. Unsupervised.
- Worse, the new secondary supply law that goes live in February doesn’t cover BYO.
- What is this world coming to?!
- Parents! WAKE UP!
* This story is true. Only the name and photo are changed. Pray I don’t have to do likewise for you.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Second Thoughts
July 4, 2011 at 4:40 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, bring your own, BYO, drinking, duty of care, event, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, police, prevention, safe parties, secondary supply, teen
The new secondary supply alcohol law is fatally flawed.
Nasty Surprise
After my recent one-hour interview with the Member for Doncaster, Mary Wooldridge, it was discovered that the secondary supply law due to come into effect in Feb 2012 will NOT include BYO alcohol at teen parties.
In my experience of planning and protecting 700 teen events, most problems have been with drinks brought by guests and not managed by parents.
This secondary supply law omission, therefore, is a massive oversight!
Last fortnight, both parties (in Croydon and Geelong) which hit the media were BYO. In fact, most parties we hear about for all the wrong reasons are due to problems caused by BYO alcohol.
MP Wooldridge cited figures on teens overindulging at parties where parents supplied the alcohol.
I’m unsure how these figures were collated, given that police don’t keep records on how many out-of-control parties they attend.
This is something I’ve been pushing for. Wouldn’t it be better to have hard data on out-of-control parties so we can determine objectively why they’re going off the rails?
Massive Oversight
BYO parties are by far the most volatile, because no-one controls the alcohol.
The secondary supply law doesn’t cover BYO. This means that once this law is passed, we’ll see more BYO teen parties because host parents may find it too difficult to get guest parent permission for their kids to drink at these events.
Furthermore, we still don’t know what sort of permission is required (email? hand-written note?). Nor do we know how such permissions will be authenticated.
MP Wooldridge also said there’d be huge amounts of money spent on an awareness campaign. What happens then? I’ll tell you. More people will have BYO parties and no-one will be accountable again and again.
Planning to Fail
Some states already have secondary supply laws, but these have failed to control private parties. (Click here for Queensland’s latest nightmare.)
If Victoria’s secondary supply legislation also fails, as I’m sure it will, I believe we must look at teen party legislation for a solution.
A holistic approach is infinitely better. Parents must be accountable for every party they plan. Duty of care is THE most important factor. This makes far more sense than having police chase every underage partygoer (who’s drinking host-supplied alcohol) for a note from their parents.
This seems the height of impracticality to me.
What do you think?
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
The Pits
April 11, 2011 at 5:24 am | Posted in Security | 2 CommentsTags: band, child, crowd control, crowd surfing, death, event, heavy metal, injury, kid, mosh, moshing, Naomi Oakley, safe parties, skate, U-NOME Security, youth
Moshing: one of kids' more disturbing pastimes.
Heavy Duty
Last weekend I assigned ten of my staff to a youth event. It was a skate festival, followed by live acts – including a heavy metal band.
An hour before this band came on, organisers warned me to put my people on high alert.
Why? Because the kids were about to become extremely excited and ‘mosh’.
I’d observed moshing at dozens of youth events. I didn’t think this would be any different.
How WRONG I was!
Death Spiral
I can’t remember the band’s name, but it had Death in it. That should’ve set alarm bells ringing!
The fans were aged from around 9 to 30. As the band jammed, these young people went into a weird trance.
Then they started to hit, kick and push each other.
This moshing looked like an all-in brawl. I found it extremely hard to see the fine line that established the difference.
Then the band leader started encouraging ‘mosh moves’ by name!
When he called for the Wall of Death, the crowd divided, leaving a five-metre gap between the two opposing groups. Then they ran as fast as they could into each other – bumping, falling and injuring themselves.
Next was the Lasso. The fans ran in a circle as fast as they could, until they fell over or into each other.
Finally, the band leader incited everyone to crush against the crash fence so people could crowd surf.
While my staff managed to catch a few of the surfers as they slid off the forest of raised hands, some fell straight to the ground!
It was like watching a cult. These people seemed possessed for a full 30 minutes.
It was absolutely crazy. How could anyone let a nine-year-old child be involved in this?
I needed some answers.
Post Mortem
After the event, I had a debrief with my staff. We tried to think of ways to prevent moshing.
We agreed that getting amongst a mosh pit can make things worse. Staff can even be knocked out by flying arms and feet.
Apart from stopping the music, we didn’t come up with much.
Do you know how moshing can be prevented?
I’d really appreciate your advice.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
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