Security at Ponsonby Intermediate has been stepped up following a daytime burglary in which 16 students had their cell phones and iPods stolen from a locker.
The Photo shows School Principal Wim Boxen and student Sasha Richards beside the cupboard from which student phones were taken. Photo: Fin Scott
Three-metre-high fences, new gates, steel plates on doors, and mesh screens on some of the windows are turning the school into a real “Fort Knox”, says principal Wim Boxen.
An offender broke in through an open window during school hours while children and staff were on site but away from the classroom.
The thief is thought to have used a crowbar to jimmy open a cupboard and break its padlock as the year-seven and eight children were on their lunch break.
Mr Boxen is fed up with thieves targeting his school and says this is the first time he has experienced a break-in during school hours.
The nature of the offending has led Mr Boxen to believe that there are “professional thieves who go round ripping schools off because they know they’re soft targets”.
The school has a policy whereby students bringing cell phones and other valuable items to school have these items locked away and then returned to them at the end of the day.
Sasha Richards, a year-seven student, had her phone stolen. She thinks it is particularly frightening that the burglar struck in the middle of the day.
“He’s just come through the school with his hand over his face,” she said.
Sasha was left feeling “pretty shocked” when her and her classmates’ phones were taken.
Two students saw the offender in the classroom. However, being the middle of the day, they both thought nothing of it.
“They thought he was a teacher, you know a relief teacher or something like that,” said Mr Boxen. With a total roll of 546 students, one individual could go unnoticed on school grounds.
Ponsonby Intermediate received glowing praise in its most recent Education Review Office report which said “all students are supported and they’re encouraged to become life-long learners in a safe and challenging environment”.
Mr Boxen is confident the school is taking all the necessary steps to keep it this way.
This theft, alongside other incidents in recent years, has forced the school to implement additional security measures.
The decile-nine school has been forced to foot a $500 excess payment to cover parents who have opted to claim insurance through the school’s provider rather than through lodging their own personal claims.
The costs are certainly adding up, in addition to the “tens of thousands of dollars” already spent on upgrades to fences, gates, doors and windows, says Mr Boxen.
