Parents leaving children alone at deserted schools

By Carly Udy
Children as young as five are being left unattended at Bay primary schools by their parents, sometimes up to an hour before school starts.
Police say the trend is disturbing and recommend schools contact them or Child Youth and Family if they cannot convince parents to provide supervision.
One mother recently confronted by staff at Tauranga Primary School said she "had to go out for a jog" in explanation as to why she dropped her child off early.
At Selwyn Ridge School in Welcome Bay, children have been dropped off as early as 7.15am, when staff are not available to care for them until 8am.
"7.15 or 7.30am is far too early for children to be waiting for school to begin," acting principal Craig Price said.
Children should be arriving an hour later - at 8.15am, for an 8.30am start.
Mr Price said safety concerns for children had prompted the school to remind working families that teachers were not available for before-school care at such an early hour.
Tauranga police are advising school principals to contact them if there are parents who are repeat offenders.
Sergeant John Hicks said schools were not a closed environment and if children were left unsupervised, police would have concerns about stranger danger and road safety.
"I'm quite disturbed to hear that," he told the Bay of Plenty Times. "Parents really should make other arrangements rather than dumping them (their children) on the schools. If we did receive complaints we would look at taking it up with the parents."
The officer in charge of youth services for Tauranga police, Nga Utanga, also advised schools to consider contacting outside authorities such as Child Youth and Family if they had no success in politely getting parents to change their ways.
"I think the community as a whole would have a concern about children being left without supervision," he said.
At Tauranga Primary School, principal Jenny McNicol, who in the past has raised the issue with the Ministry of Education, said the problem was widespread in all schools and parents needed to be reminded that the state did not fund schools to be child minders.
Ms McNicol said there were "all sorts of dangers" that could pose a threat to children left unsupervised and just because Tauranga Primary School was a "visible' school from the road, that didn't mean the risks weren't there.
She said she'd received a blunt response from some parents when she tried to remind them of their obligations.
"Some say, 'well I've got to go to work,' like it's our problem ... I even had one mother say she's got to go out for a jog, well I'm sorry ... " she said.
"We try to broach it in such a way that we remind them, it's our role to educate, not babysit."
Ms McNicol said the school did not want to alienate families but nor did it wish to be taken for granted.
After-school care arrangements could be just as much of a problem. In worst-case scenarios children were not being picked up until after 4pm, when school finished at 3.15pm.
Ms McNicol said teachers had meetings, class preparation and other commitments and could not be relied on to provide supervision.
"We do understand and appreciate what a parent's responsibility is ... but they really do expect us to be very cheap childminders."
At Gate Pa School, principal Richard Inder said children were not allowed into classrooms until 8.30am but on occasion they were dropped off by their parents before the duty teacher began just after 8am.
"It's a hell of a long time for someone to wait and then if it's raining and cold, you've got those other issues as well," he said.
Graeme Lind, principal at Greenpark Primary School, said parents were well aware what time they should be dropping children off at school and any earlier than the recommended time "wasn't on".
"It's not good enough and not fair on the kiddies or the teachers, who have to have time to prepare (lessons for the day)," he said.
The issue was not too bad at Greenpark, which offers an on-site privately-run business called Home Time, a contracted before and after-school care programme that parents pay for.
Principal Darryn Gray of Te Akau ki Papamoa School and Jan Tinetti of Merivale School said children showing up too early at their schools were "one-offs".
Chris Day, central North Island manager of schools performance for the Ministry of Education, said the board of trustees made it clear to parents, through the principal, when supervision was and wasn't available at school. Most schools worked around school bus schedules.
"It is unreasonable for a board to expect teachers to be at school supervising children showing up as much as an hour before school starts," he said.