Video Transcription
Red Frogs Schoolies
So, we just dropped a girl off at ETC, which is our emergency triage center. We were in her hotel cooking some pancakes for a big house party that they were doing, and this girl came in and kind of half collapsed on the stairs.
Well, my name is Sean, and I have been team leading at Schoolies on the Gold Coast now for six years. I’m team leading again this year in our central zone. Being back on the Gold Coast this year is just really exciting, because we get to be a part of this incredible response of safer Schoolies and other organizations that are just here to really care for our students. I mean, they’re going to party regardless of whether it gets cancelled or not, or anything like that. And so, to actually have it officially on means that we get to actually partner with our Schoolies in the best possible way and give them the best possible support while they’re here, because it’s an official thing. And so, that’s really exciting.
This year has been quite different, actually, in previous years that I’ve seen. Firstly, there’s a lot more students down here this year, but also, there’s been such an anticipation around this year, with things not knowing whether it’s going to be cancelled or go ahead or anything like that. I think the expectations have really lifted, because we’ve made it, and we can do it. We’re going to go hard because this is our celebration time. This year, there’s been a lot of pressure buildup and expectation buildup around what this week looks like for their Schoolies, because, like, they’re finished, and almost the pandemic is like non-existent as far as their attitude goes right now, because this is their release. And so, in the same way that you shake up a soda bottle and then pop the lid and it explodes, I think our Schoolies are feeling that in their attitude towards what this week looks like.
So, we just dropped a girl off at ETC, which is our emergency triage center. We were in her hotel. A girl came in and kind of half collapsed on the stairs. We managed to get her sat down with some Frogs and just chatted through, you know, what her night has been like and what she had taken and those sorts of things. We realized quite quickly that she had taken a pretty dangerous mix of things. We saw her eyes kind of peeling back in her head. Her tongue was swollen. She’s in a pretty bad way.
With a large group of people who are all very intoxicated, there can be either complete neglect because they don’t notice it, because they’re doing their own thing, or the friends that are conscious of what’s happening don’t know what to do in that situation. They’re coming into this week with the expectation that alcohol or drugs is going to fix their problem because they’re going to be having fun. But the issue is that when you have too much alcohol or drugs, sure, you have a small high where you have a lot of fun, but the crash is a way bigger and way deeper crash.
After we found out that basically she had taken the equivalent of about 20 standard drinks of alcohol within about an hour and a half, she was also on a prescription antidepressant, which had been raised recently, so she wasn’t used to the dosage that she was taking. Then she also took two caps of MDMA on top of that. She said to us that she had used MDMA before, but the mix of a higher dose of antidepressants and MDMA just really messed with her system. Anything could be adjusted in it, and it showed. We’re saying that it’s MDMA, but really it could be a multitude of drugs.
When you walk into a week like this and mental health issues are dealt with in the wrong way, it turns into broken pieces, and it actually hurts people more than it helps them. We saw her turn so quickly in the night, you know, like it just went from bad to worse in a matter of minutes. And that’s the danger of what they’re taking. But Frogs are really good at picking up broken pieces, and we’re really good at being with people who feel like their life has been shattered. So, the power of having Frogs at Schoolies week is that we get to be there when the pieces shatter, and when they get put back together, it becomes this beautiful story of redemption for them. And I think that’s just incredible.
Video by Red Frogs
