Young people are more likely to be risk-takers. That’s well-known.
It’s also well-known that many young adults love to socialize.
Nothing new about that.
So, when you combine risk-taking and love of partying with the return of post-secondary education — in the midst of a worldwide pandemic — it should shock no one that some students may make poor decisions.
In the last month in Nova Scotia, RCMP in several university communities have handed out at least half a dozen $1,000 fines to out-of-province students who failed to self-isolate for the mandated 14 days. One offender, who just started at Université Ste. Anne, tested positive for COVID-19 and was expelled.
Despite that, this week, residents of Halifax neighbourhoods surrounding Dalhousie University complained a number of incoming Ontario students were not only failing to self-isolate, they were throwing wild parties that included nudity, drunkenness, public urination and menacing behaviour.
Let’s be clear. We’re not singling out Ontario students for condemnation. We expect some Atlantic-based students have also been involved in wild partying that’s disrespectful of others.
In university communities right across Canada, a minority of returning students have acted irresponsibly and been fined for flouting public health regulations designed to protect people, especially the vulnerable, from COVID-19.
South of the border, reckless behaviour by college students has resulted in numerous fines and thousands of new COVID cases. Just last weekend, six students at Miami University’s Oxford, Ohio, campus were fined after throwing a house party in defiance of lockdown rules — and despite being aware that some partygoers, including some of the hosts, had recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, in Nottingham, England, a university student who refused to shut down a large house party when ordered to do so by police on Friday night is facing a fine of 10,000 pounds, the equivalent of about $17,000.
So, the problem is not confined to students from any particular part of Canada, or the world.
And, to be fair, it’s also important to recognize we’re only talking about a minority of young people here. Thousands of students have returned to their studies across Canada, including in the Atlantic region, and are faithfully obeying local public health rules designed to contain the spread of the pandemic.
People like Maddison Hodgins, a fourth-year Dalhousie student from Ontario who is studying medical sciences, whose op-ed today reasonably argues it’s unfair to tar all young people from her province with the same brush.
She’s right.
What’s needed is continued strict enforcement of public health rules resulting in swift, financially stinging punishments for those who refuse to act responsibly.
Students who are repeat offenders should know their actions could also get them expelled.
Nobody can credibly argue that they didn’t know. We’ve been in a pandemic for more than six months. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives worldwide after becoming infected with the new coronavirus. The message that people should social distance and, when appropriate, self-isolate — so that the most vulnerable among us are kept safe — has been repeated ad nauseam.
It’s up to legal and educational authorities to make it clear such behaviour will not be tolerated.
