Why is the general opinion of students so low?

I’m a student at Sheffield Hallam University, and I’ve noticed a trend with people in the UK. The word ‘student’ seems to be a byword for ‘a lazy, unproductive little scumbag with no respect for rules and regulations’. Or so it seems to me anyway. I was on a forum a few weeks ago, and I noticed a thread titled ‘How important is the student vote in Sheffield?’ I checked it out, since I am somewhat interested in the upcoming general election, this being the first one where I am old enough to vote. A few posts down in this thread someone had said (from the profile I saw he appeared to be a middle aged businessman type) “Why should students care about the general election? They’re all too busy getting drunk and having sex”. I don’t know about any other students, but personally I find this quite offensive. Yes I am a student. I also have a part time job working as a cleaner for a cleaning contractor company, I co-own a business for my placement year, and, although I do enjoy a good night out as much as the next person, I go out drinking at the VERY most once a month, but it’s usually more like every three months.

So, I don’t fit into that category whatsoever. But, since I’m labelled with the term ‘student’, people seem to think that of me anyway. It’s really not fair to just lump everyone into one category based on a label. It’s like saying all black people are terrorists, or all catholic priests abuse children. Now if anyone made either of THOSE claims, I’m sure they’d get picked up on it almost instantly. So why not with students? People on the forum I mentioned seemed to be supporting this guy’s argument, just on the assumption that all students fall into this category. I posted a little later on, trying to put this point across, and I was more or less ignored. It’s completely unfair for people to be treated in this way, yet it seems to be happening more and more. It happened when I was growing up too. For being a young teenager, I got judged by the standards of the type who stand around on street corners menacing passers by and drinking while underage. People tend to judge based on assumptions made before they even meet someone, not on individual cases. Well that’s my rant for the day done. Thanks for reading.