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Anxious kindergarten officials in Auckland are investigating how pre-schoolers stole into a storeroom and emptied cans of beer left from a fund-raising event.
Two youngsters were noticed missing during a fire drill last week at a North Shore kindergarten. They were found in the storage area minutes later with beer-soaked clothing from open cans.
Auckland Kindergarten Association general manager Tanya Harvey said yesterday it was not clear if they had actually consumed any alcohol, let alone become inebriated, and an investigation was continuing in consultation with their parents.
"We don't know if anything was consumed yet - maybe they just sprayed it over themselves.
"As far as I know, they hadn't got in and got themselves drunk, or anything like that. It just means they were able to access it - and how much has been consumed, that's what we are still trying to determine.
"Probably it was just horrible old warm beer or something and they probably just spat it out."
Ms Harvey said the cans were stored behind a latched door, which the children somehow climbed up to open, so it was not as though alcohol had been left accessible to youngsters in an open play area. She did not know how much alcohol was being stored, or whether there was anything stronger than beer.
"The children got into an area which was not normally accessible by them without a teacher," she said. "It was definitely not like there was anything lying around the kindergarten. It was probably only a couple of minutes before they were found."
Even so, Ms Harvey said, it was against association policy for alcohol to be stored on kindergarten premises, although it was sometimes available to adults at fundraising events controlled by licences under the Sale of Liquor Act.
She would not identify the kindergarten and said she did not know the ages of the children, although they were likely to be 4-year-olds rather than younger, given the length of waiting lists on the North Shore.
Nor would she comment on their parents' reaction, saying that was a matter between them and the kindergarten association, but she said there had been no great public discussion.
Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams said the incident should serve as a "wake-up call" about the pervasiveness of alcohol in a society which appeared to tolerate it even in schools and kindergartens.
