When she started to strip, Mindi noticed a friend at the
bar.
She never gave it a second thought.
The 18-year-old, then a student at All Saints Catholic High
School, took off all her clothes and waited for her schoolmate to do the same.
Then the girls wrestled naked in front of the patrons at
Philthy McNasty’s Bar & Sports Grill in the Kanata Centrum.
“The main part of a car rally is to do stuff naked,” said
Mindi. “It’s funny.”
Every year, the graduating classes of high schools in
Kanata, Stittsville and West Carleton stage car rallies in the city’s west end,
with students given a list of tasks to perform, usually drunk and usually
naked, said Mindi, who participated in an All Saints car rally this summer.
Students each pay $5 or more to enter, forming teams of up
to six travelling in the same car.
Half the money goes to the class prom or after prom fund and
the rest is awarded to the team with the highest number of points, earned by
completing items on the list.
The winning team in Mindi’s rally, was awarded a Texas
Mickey, a three-litre bottle of liquor – vodka, rum or rye whiskey – sold as
party centerpieces at LCBOs.
Car rallies are a tradition at most west end high schools,
said Mindi.
“Even my parents said they did a car rally back in the day,”
she said. “It’s a nice thing to bring everyone together before you graduate.”
Mindi had been looking forward to doing a car rally ever
since she was in Grade 8.
“Once you hit Grade 12, you get to do prom, you get to do
(Tila Tequila, a downtown Ottawa
bar), you get to do car rally.”
“Usually every school does it,” said Mindi. “But everybody
has it at their own time – only the graduating class does it.”
Sgt. Patricia Ferguson, head of the Ottawa police’s school resource officers in
the west end, said most parents would be horrified if they saw the items on
their children’s “scavenger hunt” list.
Ferguson showed the
Kourier-Standard a list taken from a student at a Kanata high school during a car rally last
May, calling for students to:
• Shave a cat; buy a goldfish and eat it in front of a
clerk; lick a toilet seat; drink three shots of vinegar.
• Eat a donut off a
male’s genitalia.
• Shave a male’s penis onto someone’s head.
• Perform oral sex while being videotaped.
• Give lap dances to strangers in bars.
• Drive 150 kilometres per hour down a city road.
• “Hump” a random stranger.
• Give a purple nurple and a wedgie to a stranger.
• Defecate on a car’s sunroof.
Police are seeing an increasing number of car rallies every
year, said Ferguson,
adding that it’s a west-end phenomenon.
“Parents need to be aware these things are going on,” she
said. “They’re not the car rallies of olden days, (when) it was mischievous.
“A lot of the things we’re seeing right now are downright
criminal and dangerous.”
For instance, police have received reports of students
directing traffic in the nude at large intersections – last year naked students
were seen in the middle of the intersection at Terry Fox Drive and Hazeldean Road.
Other tasks involve stealing trays and other items from
restaurants.
The Parental Responsibility Act holds parents accountable
for the actions of children under the age of 18, said Ferguson, allowing victims of vandalism to
seek compensation in small claims court.
On Thursday night, Oct. 8, police responded to several calls
reporting disorderly nude teens on Main
Street in Stittsville and car rallies at the
Kanata Centrum, said Const. Ryan Strotmann.
“We had several calls (reporting) teens being silly, drunk
and disorderly and some running around in the nude in their birthday suits,”
said Strotmann.
The teenagers were taking advantage of a long weekend, said
Strottman – Friday, Oct. 9, was a professional development day at public and
Catholic high schools.
Officers issued three tickets to students from West Carleton
Secondary School for
liquor licence violations, and several warnings.
Police are also investigating an assault involving two
students connected to the car rallies.
The night of Oct. 8, at around 7:15 p.m., the women in the
Booty Fitness Camp were doing stomach crunches when Walter Baker
Park was suddenly lit up
by headlights.
Four cars parked near the toboggan hill at the Kanata
Recreation Complex. Suddenly a group of teens burst out of the cars, hooting
and hollering, said Jane Smith (not her real name), one of the women in the
fitness class.
Eight male teens dressed only in boxer shorts and briefs ran
past the women and up the toboggan hill.
“They got to the top of the hill and then rolled down the
hill,” said Smith. “Then we realized they were naked.”
The women in the fitness class started laughing until the
naked teens ran through the crowd of prone women.
“It was kind of funny of at first, but it became offensive
when they ran through us when we were lying on the ground,” said Smith.
Next it was the girls turn.
Four female teens wearing only shirts and shorts charged up
the hill, took off their clothing, and rolled down the hill.
“We were laughing so hard wondering what the heck is going
on?” said Smith. “I heard a rumour that it (happened at the KRC arena) and the
playgrounds, so we were one little stop in their escapade.”
The teens left behind several empty liquor bottles, said
Smith.
A little later that night a nude high school student ran
through the main rink at the Kanata Recreation Complex during an Atom girls’
hockey game between teams from Kanata and Nepean.
“Some guy streaked across the ice,” said a member of the
Kanata Minor Hockey Association.
The teen ran outside, where he was met by a group of friends
dressed up in strange costumes, she said.
Arden Nordstrom, 17, a Grade 12 student at West Carleton,
said none of the students on her car rally team took their clothes off or did
anything dangerous.
“We kind of stay away from that,” she said. “It was kind of
tame.”
The most extreme item on their list was eating three
teaspoons of cinnamon, she said.
One of the items on the list called for students rolling
down the toboggan hill at the Kanata Recreation Complex.
“We didn’t take off our clothes,” said Arden. “I think the deal was, if you did it
naked you got bonus points.”
Arden
said her team spent $10 to enter the rally, and none of them drank any alcohol.
She said many of the students in the car rally went home
early after they met up with police at the Kanata Centrum the night of Oct. 8.
NOT SANCTIONED
Colin Anderson, principal of West Carleton
Secondary School, said he
learned that some of his students participated in the Oct. 8 car rally several
days later.
“I’m sure their parents would be proud,” said Anderson. “I know these
things go on but I wasn’t aware of the details. If we find out about these
activities we always notify Ottawa
police.”
Anderson
said his staff can’t police the activities of children off school grounds.
“When they’re on their (own time, and) on the weekend
they’re really their parents’ children (more) than they are our students,” he
said.
Car rallies are not sanctioned by schools, he added.
“We don’t allow them to put any posters up at school.”
But students find a way to organize under the radar of
parents, teachers and police, he added.
“I suspect they do it through Facebook or that kind of
thing,” he said.
But teens are much smarter than that, said Mindi.
“The police are always looking on Facebook,” she said.
Students organize car rallies by texting one another on
cellphones, she said.
Anderson
said it’s not just West Carleton students participating in car rallies.
“I know some of our kids did it because they were talking
about it, but they said other kids (from other schools) were doing it,” said Anderson.
Anderson
said he spoke to one student who appeared horrified at some of the items
written on the list obtained by police from a student at another school last
May.
Student safety is the number one priority at West Carleton,
said Anderson.
“So when we hear students are doing unsafe behaviour, we
always want to work with police and parents to try to stop that kind of
behaviour,” he said. “It’s hard to do if we don’t know of it beforehand.”
Anderson
said he spoke to one parent afterward who knew about the rally, but didn’t tell
the school or police.
The parent was afraid of losing their child’s confidence,
said Anderson.
The principal said he obtained a video of the student who
ran across the ice naked at the Kanata Recreation Complex, and was giving it to
the police.
RUIN THE FUN
Mindi said her class organized a rally one night last
summer, with teams meeting in a field out in Carp behind a community centre.
Students had to arrive before 6 p.m., she said, when the
“scavenger hunt” list was handed out to participants.
Everyone decorated their cars and themselves according to a
theme.
“Someone had the Wizard of Oz theme,” she said. “We all had
bandanas on.
Each team had a designated driver and someone with a video
camera or a digital camera to record the tasks, she said.
None of the students were worried about photographs or
videos later appearing on a website, she added.
“Usually you don’t care,” she said. “You’re drunk, you don’t
care – you know you’re doing it with friends.”
Mindi’s car rally followed a route throughout the west end, Gatineau, ending at a bar in downtown Ottawa.
She said students could earn the most points by getting a
permanent All Saints tattoo somewhere on their body – other tasks, such as
going through a drive-thru or a bus station nude were given fewer points.
Other tasks included appearing naked in a photograph with a
stranger and stealing trays from McDonalds.
“I’ve seen some weird stuff,” Mindi said. “A car rally is
just about doing embarrassing things. It’s about doing weird things – a lot of
naked stuff.”
Mindi said police can’t stop students from running car
rallies.
“What are they going to do?” she asked. “They don’t know
where we’re meeting, what’s on the list – they don’t know anything.
“Police are just trying to ruin the fun.”