Parents banned from sports day over paedophile fears

Parents were banned from attending their children's school sports day to protect pupils from potential child abductors and paedophiles. More than 270 pupils from four primary schools in Bedfordshire took part in the East Beds School Sports Partnership Athletics Day.

But there were no spectators present because the organisers said allowing them would make it impossible to prevent "unsavoury" characters from attending. A risk assessment concluded that the host school, Sandy Upper School in Biggleswade, could not "guarantee the children's safety".

Parents have condemned the ban. Mother-of-three Emma Collett, 33, of Biggleswade, has a child at St Andrews Lower School in the town. "I would have taken time off work to support my child. It would have meant a lot to me," she said. "I'm all for measures to protect the safety of children but lines must be drawn and common sense must prevail." Andrea Etienne, 41, of Biggleswade, who also has a child at St Andrews, added: "It would have been nice if they could have tried to make it happen."



Organisers of the event, held on Wednesday June 24 between 10am and noon, claimed that, because of the large numbers involved, they would have been unable to police who was entering the school grounds. Paul Blunt, development manager at the East Beds School Sports Partnership, said the "ultimate fear" was that a child could be abducted.

"If we let parents into the school they would have been free to roam the grounds. All unsupervised adults must be kept away from children.

"An unsavoury character could have come in and we just can't put the children in the event or the students at the host school at risk like that. The ultimate fear is that a child is hurt or abuducted, and we must take all measures possible to prevent that."