School out for children of children

By BRIDGET CARTER

Audrey Beazley is the woman with her sleeves rolled up and her sneakers on, climbing under a bridge, following a student down the main street of Kaitaia or chasing others out from behind the back of a carpark.

When not on patrol, she is tucked away behind Kaitaia Intermediate School in an old classroom with paper spilling from her desk, a phone that keeps on ringing and a problem that won't go away.

Audrey, 43, is the Far North truancy co-ordinator dealing with hundreds of young children kept out of class by their parents.

It is a mountain-sized problem that she says has its roots in poverty, single-parent families where there are many children and "kids having kids".

"The parents are not that much older than their own children and are treating them as their friends."

About five years ago the trained social worker decided to take on the job as truancy officer.

As a widow trying to raise four children alone, she felt she could relate to the families she would be dealing with.

"I used to go and feed the street kids under bridges," she said.

She wanted to help children and she was aware of how many were missing school. She juggles her time between street patrols, office work and visiting families to sort out problems.

Some schools are better than others at dealing with the problem, she says, and increased resources would help. "You need people dealing with people."