Bucklands Beach parents worried about CYFS school

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Wed, 08 Jun 2011 6:16p.m.

Thurston Place College will be built on a soon to be demolished site

Thurston Place College will be built on a soon to be demolished site

By Tony Reid

It could be a classic case of “nimby”, or “not in my back yard”.

But at Bucklands Beach near Auckland, a school and its parents say no school should have to put up with a CYFS facility for difficult children right next door.

They want CYFS to abandon the plan, but that looks unlikely

The kids at Pigeon Mountain Primary School aren't scared of getting a little bit wet at lunch time, but their parents are scared of a new school right over the fence.

“One hundred teenagers with severe behavioural and emotional problems all of whom are in Child Youth and Family care,” says parent Andrea Spong.

Thurston Place College will be built on a soon to be demolished site, providing education for kids with complex needs. Kids from violent backgrounds, kids who may have been abused, and that's got Andrea Spong worried about her own five-year-old daughter.

“If my daughter or some of her school mates came into contact with these children, perhaps they may be intimidated or bullied or something worse,” she says.

The Ministry of Education needs a new school after it shut down Felix Donnelly College for troubled kids. Thurston College will fill that gap.

“They’re there to get an education, the staff to pupil ratio is very high because they do have quite complex needs,” says Education Minister Anne Tolley.

She says she's disappointed the neighbouring schools weren't properly consulted. 3 News asked her if any of the kids who will be going to the new school are violent.

“No you'd need to talk to Child, Youth and Family about that, our role is to make sure they get a good education,” she says.

And it's that lack of assurance which has Pigeon Mountain Primary preparing for the worst

“If a child came over to our school grounds as we border that school, then we're into lockdown procedures,” says Pigeon Mountain board chair Cameron Astill.

A community meeting in just under an hour will pit parents and the board against ministry representatives. The school says it won't be happy until Thurston College is moved somewhere else.

Watch the video to view the parent meeting at Pigeon Mountain Primary School

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Comments

25 Aug 2011 09:49p.m.

Siiri wrote:

I am interested in seeing the reaction of neighbouring residents. I live in Otahuhu. Down the road, next to Otahuhu Intermediate School, another CYFS school is planned. When the consent for this school went through the hearing process, my husband and I thought long and hard about how we should react. We did not want to jeopardise our children's wellbeing but we also didn't want to be NIMBYs. These troubled children need somewhere to be taught. They need normality in their broken lives. They need people to give them a chance rather than write them off in the first place. The CYFS schools have great safety features, high teacher to student ratios and are generally well run from what I can tell, reading about their operations. What kind of society are we if we don't want children, that haven't had many (if any) chances in life, next door? Should schools for these "undesirable" children be established in business areas? In rural areas? In the middle of nowhere? No, these children should be taught in residential areas like other children. Because that is what they ate: children of our country.

23 Jun 2011 01:07p.m.

Arrow wrote:

Greg of 9 Jun and Jo of 13 Jun: Well written. To many of the people protesting the opposition of TPC, please understand that the opposition is not against giving these children an education. Protests are only against the placement of this centre, which is entirely too close for most parents' comforts. It doesn't help that the nature of children who will attend isn't completely known and reports do get out of hand with assigning increasingly violent tendencies of these children, though some are completely true. As a parent, who would be comfortable with their young child exposed to such older children? The main problem with the protests is that the nature of the attendees of TPC is unknown, and thus the tendency is to assume that the majority have the worst behavioral problems out of all possible problems. Let me just stress again, the protests are not against giving these children an education. Protests are only against the placement and the utter lack of community consultation. These children do deserve education, but their possible behavioral problems do not make setting up TPC right next to mainstream primary and intermediate schools appealing for parents who have every right to ensure the physical and mental safety of their own child. Please stop making strawman arguments.

21 Jun 2011 10:53p.m.

Natasha wrote:

as i trainee secondary I am absolutely disgusted at people protesting this school, all kids deserve a chance at recieving the best education so they can have all the opportunities that life has to offer, these kids have had a hard life which is not their fault and the only reason they will grow up to be bad is if people treat them like dirt and don't give them a chance, try love not hate

16 Jun 2011 07:59p.m.

Gary wrote:

Seems to me that the kids who may be attending this school have more need to worry about their own safety, what with the nimby attitudes of those opposing it ( their are plenty of local kids who could be attendees ] and the history of the previous facility, from memory it was a local, white, middle class male who offended against kids in his care!

15 Jun 2011 10:30a.m.

Steven wrote:

Since this year is Election Year, for those people who are against this school should use their vote to do the talking.

13 Jun 2011 08:17p.m.

lee wu wrote:

To the people who support this plan: 1.Do not use cheap words to express yourself,why do not you take some actions? Bring these "innocent angel" to your home ,give them your endless and selfless love ! Do it !Do it now! To criticize other people is always easy,isn't it? To the parents who disagree this plan: Take action now,the goverment is playing a dirty game now.To get some special support from some specail person,the officials in Auckland city betrayed us .This is a shameful behaviour ,do not e silent again .Take action to e agianst this dirty game.

13 Jun 2011 02:34p.m.

Alex wrote:

ERO Report about Felix Donnelly College in 2009: ERO said it was detrimental for younger boys to be exposed to older youth with severe behavioural difficulties. So why does Ministry of Education and the government now propose to put 100 youth together in the same facility?

13 Jun 2011 01:47p.m.

Jo wrote:

Dear Cheryl- June 10. These teenagers are totally entitled to a good education and no one is denying them this. Studies have shown that children with severe behavioural and emotional issues are best placed within mainstream schools- your Grandson is in a boarding school- a school I assume is for all kids, not a specific special school,or perhaps he is in the van Ash school for the deaf, catering for his specific disability with teachers trained for his very needs,so he is in the recommended facility for what his issues are. What is proposed here is grouping up to 100 of these teenagers together in one spot- an educationally proven recipe for disaster. The initial group of 35 or so teenagers are coming from the Felix Donnely school, shut down because of on going educational and structural problems, which included 6 Principals in 6 years. A senior teacher of this school has stated that every morning these youth were checked for drugs, weapons alcohol and cigarettes. Teachers oftened feared for their own safety. Some of these kids are from 3rd generation gang families. Certain colours are banned from clothing, because they are gang colour. Friends of the kids often came to the grounds and left paraphenalia hidden for the resident kids to find and use. All these kids have been removed from their families and placed into CYFs care- and some of these have been moved from one carer family to another, because the previous carer could not cope with the behavioural problems any longer.They do not have and have not come from caring families like the family your grandson obviously belongs to. Many of the kids have been under the Youth Justice system, or are heading to it. Is your Grandson like this? Can you honestly say that you think it is a good idea to place these youths in a facility that joins onto a primary school with 500+ pupils? They shouldn't be placed all together for a start, and not next to ANY primary school, anywhere in New Zealand. Not in Bucklands Beach, not in Otara, , not in Mangere, not in Remuera, not in Manuera and not in Christchurch either. If it has to be built, because no main stream school will take any of these students any longer, they need a setting away from any schools, and and built up residential area. And they need a setting with a good amount of land, not an area that will barely provide one playing field. We do know about these kids- we no they are entitled to the best education that can be provided for them- and this college in this small location will certainly NOT give them this.

13 Jun 2011 12:03p.m.

mia wrote:

the kids deserve a second chance but not at the chance of hurting someone else.. why have young children lives put in the line of danger?? so we can have more messed up kids in the world??? they deserve a second chance where they are not a risk to anyone else!!!!!! seriously people use your heads....

12 Jun 2011 08:07a.m.

Jesse wrote:

BB people, invite ex FDC staff to a meeting to tell you the truth. As a matter of fact invite former students to tell you what they were up to.