Editorial: Gang dad story prompts outpouring of opinion

Skip Taitapanui and his son are both hopeful they can attend a school camp together.

Never before has a story in our newspaper attracted as many comments in such a short time as the Whakatane gang member banned from going to his son's school camp.

Skip Taitapanui was initially invited by his son's teacher to be a parent helper on James Street School's trip to Hamilton. But he was later told by principal Norah Schreiber he could not go because he was an active gang member.

Mr Taitapanui is making a formal complaint, saying he just wants to do the best for his son and support him in everything he does.

Between Thursday morning, when our story broke, and yesterday afternoon, there were 418 comments on this website, 195 comments on our Facebook page, 270 comments on our sister paper Whakatane News' Facebook page and 1500 comments on the New Zealand Herald Facebook page.

The reactions are varied. Some support the father, saying he's a father too and should be allowed to make a positive influence on his son's life.

Others say his active involvement in a gang puts other children at unnecessary risk.

It's raised an important issue. How do schools know parents invited to help out at school camps have squeaky clean backgrounds?

There's currently no Ministry of Education requirement to do background police checks on parents.

Is this right? If you had a minor criminal conviction, would you be keen to let your child's teacher's know? Would this stop you from volunteering to help out? Probably.

But what if a parent had a serious violent or sexual offending background? Shouldn't the school, and other parents of children going on the camps for that matter, have a right to know?

Mr Taitapanui freely admits he is an active gang member. Gangs are criminal organisations.

As a parent, would you be happy with your child going off to camp with an active gang member?

While I'm certain Mr Taitapanui's intentions are good, tension from rival gangs is a real and dangerous risk. That's not a risk children should be exposed to.

If Mr Taitapanui wants to have a positive influence in his son's life, surely the best way he can do that is by leaving the gang.