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MELBOURNE - Students from Melbourne's exclusive Xavier College have been accused of damaging cars and smashing bottles in a Lord of the Flies-style rampage through an upmarket suburb.
Year 12 students at the inner suburban college were yesterday all suspended from their final three days of school before
exams.
Teachers suspended the classes to punish all 250 students for "widespread and boisterous" misbehaviour at yesterday's end-of-year muck-up day.
In Kew's residential Argyle Rd, about 3km from the school, one woman saw about 40 students parading down the road.
"They were just like a mob, you know, like Lord of the Flies," she said, referring to the fictitious teenage boys who formed a savage tribe on a deserted island in the book, Lord of the Flies.
The woman, who wanted to be identified only as Chris, said the mob was angry, aggressive and noisy as it took over the street between 6pm and 7pm yesterday.
"I was inside and there was this awful noise, lots of singing, beer songs, saying: 'Here we go, here we go'," she said yesterday.
The mob gathered around her car and two boys, wearing Xavier College socks, jumped on top of the car roof, while others cheered around them. Police estimated damage to the car at A$5000 ($5700).
Chris called 000, then came outside after the mob had moved on. "I spoke to my neighbour and a wheelie bin was thrown at her car when she was driving past," she said. "There were bottles smashed all down the street."
Boroondara Acting Senior Sergeant Rod Phillips said police were working with schools to try to identify who damaged the car. Mr Phillips said police had responded to several calls from Kew residents yesterday, with one caller saying about 100 students were revelling in the street.
Another call was about students setting off fireworks at a train station and the third was about the damaged car.
Mr Phillips said each time police arrived at the scenes, dozens of students fled. But he did not believe muck-up day behaviour was worse than in previous years.
Xavier College issued a statement defending the suspensions, but a spokeswoman said there would be no comment on specific allegations.
TOP SCHOOL
* The Jesuit school Xavier College was established in Melbourne in 1878 and caters for more than 2000 students over three campuses.
* Fees and levies are more than $20,000 a year. Boarding students pay almost $14,000 on top of that.
* Among Victoria's elite to have attended the school are former Victorian governor Sir James Gobbo and Melbourne Catholic archbishop Denis Hart.
- AAP