Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of “Crikey attempts to understand what’s going on in Adelaide”. First up we have this cartoon, published without comment or context, in Saturday’s Advertiser:
A week after the death of two remorseless mass murderers, the best “third” option their cartoonist could come up with from local news was end-of-year school pranks. Last week, a group of year 12 students at an Adelaide high school were facing bans from their graduation after running amok on school grounds.
Has PC culture actually killed muck-up day water bombings, pantsings and the other borderline forms of assault kids get up to? And is the banning of schoolyard hi-jinks remotely similar to the deaths of Ivan Milat and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? These are the questions we do not have time to answer, even if we possibly could.
In 2002 the Yr 12 kids at Mudgee High decided they weren’t dickheads and didn’t want to pretend they were. They started what is now a tradition: Rainbow Day.
On this day and the weeks and months leading up to it, they and the kids from every year since had stalls, concerts, working bees and all kinds of fundraisers. This year’s cause was the Rural Fire Service and well over 20k was raised. Other causes include Black Dog, local Hospital and facilities for disabled students. In 17 years there has almost never been the tiniest problem or embarrassment with any Yr 12 student from the school. Naturally the people of the town are immensely proud of Rainbow Day.
That is a wonderful story, Maureen. Congratulations!…to all the kids who attended Mudgee High since 2002. The town SHOULD be very proud of them!!
If only we could transfer their enthusiasm from country to city……
By the way…I’m from Adelaide, and I don’t understand that cartoon either!!!!!
I think you misunderstand Adelaide in interpreting this cartoon. Serial killing and mass murder are just equivalent to pranks in the City of Churches and Weird Murders.
That cartoon sums up the reason why I never read the Advertiser.
Perhaps there was a caption to the cartoon that was left off in the editorial process.
I would be stunned and disbelieving if I were told this has happened in Crikey, especially with such a fine cartoonist as Mary Leunig.