Western Bay principals fear for the safety of their students after police issued 377 tickets to drivers who were caught speeding past schools.
One driver was caught travelling at 96km/h in a 50km/h area during the week-long Back to School campaign.
Mount Maunganui College principal Russell Gordon, whose school area was part of the blitz, told the Bay of Plenty Times the recorded speed was "unbelievable".
"I find it hard to make sense of people going past schools where they're not conscious of their speed," he said.
"We're fortunate there's a bike bay which gives a bit of leeway but people are still travelling far too fast past the school."
Mr Gordon said the consequences of speeding past schools were highlighted by the death of a former student at the school, 13-year-old Breeze Brunton, of Welcome Bay.
Breeze died after she was hit by a logging truck before school in 2008.
"That's a day we will never forget. The poor kid," he said.
"That's seared in my memory and I can recall it today as vividly as the day it happened. It's horrible."
The student would have completed Year 13 last year.
Mr Gordon said if motorists sped past schools then they had to be prepared to live with the consequences.
Merivale School principal Jan Tinetti said the thought of a car travelling at 96km/h past a school was abhorrent.
"That's very fast and very scary. Imagine if there was a kid trying to cross the road when a car is going that fast," she said.
"I do the crossing most days and I see a lot of cars going quite fast [on Fraser St] and the issue here is that cars don't always stop for the crossing ... so if someone walks out on to the crossing and a car doesn't stop, there could be a serious accident."
Maungatapu School principal Sue Horne said the road outside her school was "a speed trap".
"Speaking from experience because I go out and do the road patrol, drivers do go much faster than they should," she said.
"There is no problem with cars stopping at the road patrol but when the signs are back, people travelling down Maungatapu Rd can get up to high speeds."
Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell said because his school, Otumoetai Intermediate and Bellevue School were in close proximity to one another, the roads surrounding the schools were often "filled with cars" before and after school.
"It does get congested which means cars can't go that fast but we're on a long, straight road and when it's clear, the cars do speed past," Mr Randell said.
"We have a pedestrian crossing and the number of cars that go right up to it or even through it is scary. I'm so concerned that one day there will be an accident there."
Otumoetai Primary principal Geoff Opie said speeding drivers outside the school "fluctuated, much like the weather", and many drivers were inattentive. He said drivers often talked on their cellphones as they drove through the pedestrian crossing outside the school gates.
"I've even seen one lady who had a bowl of cereal in her lap and she had her head right down as she put the spoon into her mouth. It's scary stuff."
Yesterday morning was "pretty horrible and people were going too fast but last Thursday was a breeze. All it takes is for one car to slow down to 40km/h and everyone else follows".
Western Bay of Plenty head of road policing Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said he did not know the monetary value the 377 speeding tickets would have generated.
"I have no interest in that at all. This is not about revenue gathering, it's about road safety."
Police officers and speed cameras were stationed outside Tauranga schools between July 16-20 as part of a Back to School campaign.