KEY POINTS:
A residential school for troubled youngsters is facing fresh criticism after a group of runaway pupils sparked a police search.
Aroha Patterson removed her 9-year-old daughter from Waimokoia School in Bucklands Beach, Auckland, the day after she ran away for the second time on February 26. Patterson said
she wasn't told about the first incident and school management waited three hours before ringing her the next time.
"I went off my nut at the school when they told me she was missing. I am not prepared to have her there under that risk."
The school has been criticised by the Education Review Office, making headlines in December when three staff members were charged with assaulting pupils. It caters for about 40 children aged from 7 to early teens who are unsuited to mainstream schooling.
Patterson said her daughter, who has Asperger's syndrome and severe anxiety, was offered a place after struggling at schools in her hometown of Invercargill.
"She can't cope with classroom noises but she's not a naughty, naughty kid," Patterson said.
The girl had one term to complete before rejoining a mainstream school but Patterson said her situation had rapidly deteriorated this year.
Her Auckland-based aunt, Jan Gomez, helped with the search once family members were alerted.
She said the girls were picked up by school officials seven hours after absconding, along with three boys who ran off the same day.
The girl told Gomez they had stolen property and fled from a shopkeeper who had been armed with a knife.
"These people have 24/7 care of these children. You would think it should be a top priority to know where they are at all times," Gomez said.
The school has had its fair share of problems. The board resigned after a 1997 ERO report outlined serious governance and management difficulties. A further report in August 2005 noted problems with the monitoring and reporting of serious incidents.
A 2006 report highlighted problems with the working environment and discontent among staff.
The school opened late this term because of a staff shortage.
The Ministry of Education installed a commissioner, Dennis Finn, to oversee the school on February 1. Finn told the Herald on Sunday the school was going through a "traumatic period" but he was determined to improve the situation. "It will take time but we will certainly get there." In a complaint to Finn, Patterson called for a review of the school. She had had little choice but to enrol her daughter in a mainstream school for the fifth time or resort to correspondence learning.
A ministry spokesman said officials were working with Finn and the school to ensure it was "emotionally and physically safe" for students and staff.
Finn was instrumental in transforming Cambridge High after former principal Alison Annan left in 2004 amid allegations of "manipulation" of exam results and financial conflicts of interest.
