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Desperate parents have resorted to sleeping at school overnight to protect their children's classrooms from vandal attacks - while frustrated principals say schools will become fortresses unless the Education Ministry solves the problem.
Burglaries and vandalism have cost 31 Auckland primary schools nearly $270,000 in the past seven months - money that principals say could be spent on students' education. "We've had a gutsful," said Malcolm Milner, head of the Auckland Primary Principals' Association.
"Kids are coming to school and finding their computers gone. Kids have ownership over their classrooms, and this an invasion of that."
Milner, principal of Freeman's Bay School, surveyed the association's 500 schools last month in a bid to raise awareness of the growing problem. Some of the more shocking results include:
$45,000 of computers were taken from Mt Roskill Intermediate School in January.
Computers, security cameras and infra-red monitors worth $23,000 were taken from Pt Chevalier School last month.
$22,000 of copper piping was taken from Glenbrae School.
A burned classroom and smashed windows cost Finlayson Park School $65,000 in November.
Every weekend for the past two years, families and staff from Pukekohe North School have slept on mattresses in the staffroom to protect the property from attacks. Since then, the 300-pupil school has suffered little vandalism or graffiti.
"It's a family school, it's very whanau orientated. Our parents have chosen to do it to make sure we don't have any vandalism. It makes a huge difference," principal Robyn Withers-Lauer said. The decile one school is unfenced and situated on a street corner, so the public can use the fields and community hall, but anyone can wander across the grounds, said Withers-Lauer.
"We used to have lots of problems, but our community is behind us, and they look after us."
Vandalism repairs are paid for by the ministry through annual operational funding, calculated on the risk of an attack and the student roll.
If the cost of the damage exceeds the initial grant, then schools can apply for reimbursement - an estimated $10 million last year.
But sometimes schools end up paying the difference, so students miss out on extra computers or equipment that parents have fundraised for.
The ministry spends more than $2 million a year on random security patrols at half of Auckland schools, but principals want security guards for all schools and surveillance cameras to be installed to stop the escalating crime. "You need security clearance to enter the ministry building. Yet our schools are completely open," said Milner.
Last week, National Party education spokeswoman Katherine Rich revealed that at least 108 closed or vacant schools had been trashed since January 2000.
"It's a shocking reality for some schools. Most schools struggle to cover the costs through their funding," Rich said.
"Principals like to clean it up as soon as possible because it has a negative effect on morale. The more tagging and damage hangs around, the more damaging it is. It's gutwrenching."
