By Elizabeth Puranam
Protests have continued tonight over a school for troubled children being built in an east Auckland suburb.
Residents of Bucklands Beach say the school poses a threat to their children and neighbourhood, and they're planning on taking their fight to Parliament.
It was standing room only today as hundreds of Bucklands Beach residents met for the fourth time in less than two weeks to protest the building of Thurston Place College.
"New Zealand has a safe environment and a good education system," says Yugen He. "That's the main reason we moved here, but this college will create a lot of risk to our children."
Thurston Place College will provide education for 100 children from abusive backgrounds.
"These young people aren't young criminals, they aren't New Zealand's worst young offenders," says CYFS director Grant Bennett.
"They are vulnerable children living in your communities."
The Ministry of Education plans to build the college on a site which backs onto Pigeon Mountain Primary and Bucklands Beach Intermediate. It's the site of the former Waimokoia Residential School, which housed 30 primary school students with special needs.
"From the ministry's point of view, we are simply replacing one special school with another," says the Ministry of Education's Bruce Adin.
But residents say Thurston Place College is different because it will hold 100 secondary school students.
"It appears that they have relied on a previous designation for a different age of child and a different type of facility," says Michael Williams of the Howick Local Board.
The board plans to take their fight to the Environment Court.
They have written to Prime Minister John Key, asking him to intervene in the construction of the college. They haven't heard back from him yet, but residents here told me tonight that they won't be voting National in this year's election if the college is built in their neighbourhood.
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