My son has brought a letter home today stating due to recent events after school.
The school after liaising with police have decided to close an hour earlier for the safety of its pupils, after a number of students have been approached by a man whilst walking home from school.
The initial period that this will happen is 2 weeks, then they will review it in 2 weekly cycles.
( I presume until they catch the culprit )

What an appalling set of circumstances.

I'm in no way having a go at the school, it is 100% the correct call if pupils safety is in jeopardy.

I remember walking quite a distance to and from both primary and secondary school as a kid, many times after an after school event, are the days gone where high school children are no longer safe to walk to and from home?

Yes a sad indictment on society today but you can't blame the school for this action, presumably it is sanctioned/ advised by the police. A pity but there you are.

I'm not sure how much more safe this will make the kids?
Light could be the only factor. But a lot of kids will be at home alone an hour longer waiting for parents.

What school

The police need to get out on patrol and do their job and arrest this pervert..

I doubt there's a rise in perverts, just a rise in awareness of them.

As sad as it is, I'm sure that those sort of people have been around for years and years. Wouldn't have thought it would be too hard for the police to catch him if he's hanging around schools at finishing time every day.

theroyaldyche wrote:What school

Burnley High

jrgbfc wrote:As sad as it is, I'm sure that those sort of people have been around for years and years. Wouldn't have thought it would be too hard for the police to catch him if he's hanging around schools at finishing time every day.

They are far too interested in arresting people for trivial things .

CleggHall wrote:Yes a sad indictment on society today but you can't blame the school for this action, presumably it is sanctioned/ advised by the police. A pity but there you are.

It is absolutely the right call, it's just a poor do the school has had to resort to this to protect the children.

Teachers will be happy. Presumably a 5 hour reduction in their working week .

In all seriousness though, it seems an odd step to take. You’d would assume a letter and some higher profile patrols would do the job.

If the pervert has owt about him, he’ll surely just set off an hour earlier!

DCWat wrote:If the pervert has owt about him, he’ll surely just set off an hour earlier!

Dude!!!! Don't give him ideas.

Need more police on the streets and more funding for this. Need more funding for prisons and the removal of out of touch judges. Call someone a name then you are in big trouble but kill someone or be a sexual predator then you will be out in no time and possibly with a new identity.

Once upon a time they would of risked offending the perverts human rights instead of shutting the school an hour earlier to avoid coming into contact with him

It doesnt actually say what the man approached the students about, was he after money? scrounging fags? just being friendly or was he sexually harrasing them. Its automatically assumed to be the latter.

TurfyMoore wrote:It doesnt actually say what the man approached the students about, was he after money? scrounging fags? just being friendly or was he sexually harrasing them. Its automatically assumed to be the latter.

It's an understandable assumption since the school decided to close early for two weeks. Hard to imagine them doing it for any of the other reasons.

That said, who would begrudge any head teacher who has to put up with Burnley and Padiham brats if they chose to close early because a block asked to borrow 10p?

Im pretty sure if a pervert had been hanging around outside Barden school in the seventies...He wouldnt have lasted two weeks,he would have been sorted and I dont mean by parents, police or teachers.

Indecisive wrote:Teachers will be happy. Presumably a 5 hour reduction in their working week .

In all seriousness though, it seems an odd step to take. You’d would assume a letter and some higher profile patrols would do the job.

They have tried that already, the predator has struck around the school, and a little further away, where the stream of children walking had died down.

TurfyMoore wrote:It doesnt actually say what the man approached the students about, was he after money? scrounging fags? just being friendly or was he sexually harrasing them. Its automatically assumed to be the latter.

He is by the sounds of it a sexual predator with the questions/requests he has asked of the children.

TurfyMoore wrote:Im pretty sure if a pervert had been hanging around outside Barden school in the seventies...He wouldnt have lasted two weeks,he would have been sorted and I dont mean by parents, police or teachers.

http://www.reddit.com/r/iamverybadass" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are we sure it's not someone from the Everton Academy.

Not sure reducing everyone's education time is the right answer.

Get more patrols out and start looking into ex offenders etc

Are we still allowed to call a nonce a nonce these days and suggest that castration and feeding to the pigs isn't punishment enough?

Or would that be offensive to the human rights brigade.

Not to be controversial or anything.

Closing early for 2 weeks, are they assuming the problem will just go away after that?
once upon a time the police would have dealt with this.

boatshed bill wrote:Closing early for 2 weeks, are they assuming the problem will just go away after that?
once upon a time the police would have dealt with this.

I agree.... then the Tories got rid of a third of them in Lancashire. Sad state of affairs.

TurfyMoore wrote:Im pretty sure if a pervert had been hanging around outside Barden school in the seventies...He wouldnt have lasted two weeks,he would have been sorted and I dont mean by parents, police or teachers.

I went to Barden in the sixties...if a chap looked odd or was a loner ect.he was a perv...... theres always been odd looking blokes in Burnley town must be full of em. we had mr Whippy the ice cream man....we always asked him for plenty of ras!! Mass hysteria strikes again

What happens if the perv finds that the school is finishing 1 hour early and he decides to go out a hour earlier? This is no solution to the issue, quite bizarre action to take.

Obviously I don’t know any of the details, but it does seem like an odd solution. Surely with working parents who were able to pick their kids up unlikely to be able to finish work an hour earlier it also increases the number of kids walking home with an accompanying adult.

Let's hope they draft more police into the area regardless of what time the school closes.

Surely the kids will just dawdle more on the way home?

I would have done.

I agree re it's a difficult issue, but not necessarily a solution which will make a lot of difference or actually help much.

Bear in mind that every child in the UK has a phone camera and knows how to use it, surely they have a photo of him by now? I assume all the children have been told to shout out "stranger danger" and keep cameras handy, and to travel in groups of three or more.

There is another high school nearby, why is this school not affected ?

Anyone seen 21 jump street? Police should have dressed as school kids and catfished the noncer

claretandy wrote:There is another high school nearby, why is this school not affected ?

Because this perv has autism and can only target one school at a specific time

(I was going to say anal perv but doesn’t seem right)

claretandy wrote:There is another high school nearby, why is this school not affected ?

Because 1 school finishes at 15:00, still very light and many other schools finish at the same time, so buses, routes home, alleys etc are quite well populated

The other finishes at 16:00, starts getting darker, all other schools have finished and are at home, means no safety in numbers.
Also this school only has around 400 students compared to 1,200 that many of the others have.

ARM THE CHILDREN!

Just had a phone call to say that my nephew and his mate were followed by a man after school who then pulled a mask over his face.

Blessed Trinity (St Theodores).

Not got the full story yet. But dont know where Burnley High School is or if this is related?

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Just had a phone call to say that my nephew and his mate were followed by a man after school who then pulled a mask over his face.

Blessed Trinity (St Theodores).

Not got the full story yet. But dont know where Burnley High School is or if this is related?

It’s where Habergham used to be.