How do we, as parents, approach the police regarding anti social behaviour outside school?

[YogaBro]

City centre primary school. Very good school, children thrive in school grounds and teachers are excellent.

Outside school grounds, there is usually a large congregation of homeless people. I have always been very sympathetic towards those who have no home, however I cannot tolerate their behaviour. In the past few weeks they have:

• pulled a knife on someone
• openly taken drugs
• left human faeces in the walkway to school
• shouted at children who dared look at them
• been arrested for shoplifting in the shop next to the school

There will be other instances too as these are just those which I have witnessed.

The school call the police every time. I've called the police and so have other parents. They show up, have a chat or possibly make an arrest, then leave them to carry on.

I spoke with the school office today and they agreed that it would be helpful if parents took action. The school have previously had a meeting with beat police, but the behaviour has continued. The school manage it as best they can and are often outside redirecting parents.

It is getting a little ridiculous.

My question. How would you approach this? A letter signed by lots of parents? A meeting?

I'm not holding out hope that it will make a difference but I feel we must try.

Bumping.

well, how close outside the school? Most of them might be breaking no laws.

I guess you just contact the local police station and arrange a meeting with them and parents to discuss the issue

Could you contact your MP? I would try that too.

They're shouting obscenities at children, pulling knives on people, taking drugs on the pavement that we walk along to school and defecating on the pathway we have to walk along to school gates. There have definitely been laws broken.

That's a good shout.

All 5 of those things mentioned in the OP are illegal. Don't minimise this, homeless or not.

OP I'd definitely get your MP involved.

Do you have a local newspaper? Get together a group of parents and form an 'action group'. Speak to your local press and emphasise that despite numerous complaints from the school, the police don't appear to be taking it seriously. This will put pressure on the police to act. Also post every incident in your local Facebook groups. If you raise awareness of the problem, more people will put pressure on them to act. Have you spoken to local council? I have every sympathy for the homeless population but children should be able to go to school without fear of harassment and antisocial behaviour.

The only problem with this is that I really don't think the school would appreciate it and we'd like to work with them, not against them.

The school is already dealing with the police about it. What do you think you can do that they can't?

Local councillor might be a good step before the MP, ours are actually quite helpful and have prodded the police where needed.

Email the local councillor for the ward and ask to discuss.

Local councillors can be excellent resources for getting things moving along (if you are lucky enough to have a competent one).

There is probably something like a neighbourhood policing forum that the councillors will be involved in.

You could discuss the potential of Criminal Behaviour Orders with the Police, they can be useful for persistent behaviours.

The school said they think it would be massively helpful if parents contacted the police as it has an impact. The school have a duty of care to report so it's almost viewed as reporting because they 'have to'. If a group of parents were to report or ask for a meeting it would hold more weight.

Isn’t this safeguarding?

I can’t understand why the LEA and police aren’t acting on it.

Is there a particular reason that they are hanging out around the school? Is the area that they gather on public or private property? I know in my local city that a number of lanes were closed off because of antisocial acts.

If the teachers on MN are to be believed, things are so bad in education that it’s possible these homeless people are teachers preparing lesson plans.

I'd suggest contacting your local policing team & asking to arrange a meeting with them to discuss things.

Well surely the Police should be called every single time any of these offences are committed? Particularly someone brandishing a knife FFS!!

If the school have already tried it with the police and the police haven't done anything then unfortunately seems there's little you can legally do.

Assuming there's limited CCTV if they've pulled a knife and the police haven't done anything.

So maybe a big group of the dads need to do something.....

I've said in my OP that they are. The issue is that it continues.

The police kept claiming we hadn't reported anything. So we now have a Google doc to log crime reporting numbers and video footage. When our Councillor sent them that, they arranged a meeting.....

They did do something, they arrested him, only for someone else to defecate on the ground outside the school the next day. This is the issue. It never ends.

Hm it's a tricky one the police in this country are pretty damn useless sometimes you have no choice but to tackle illegal behaviour with illegal behaviour

It’s vile. I can see why the school want parents to complain directly to the police - they’re hoping the volume of complaints will force some action. It’s a good call to involve local councillors and your MP. The shitting out on paths makes it a public health issue.

Go to the local press.

And councillors