The story is in the Daily Mail, so it's unlikely to be true, I know, I know. But let me tell you anyway. It's a good story - so, like a good journalist, why let facts get in the way of the telling? Here goes:
It couldn't happen, could it? A passer-by reported to the police for helping down a small boy stuck up a tree and taking him back into school? Nah ...
The 5-year old boy sitting in the tree dangling over the school wall 6 feet above the pavement told the nice lady passing by that he'd been there since playtime 45 minutes before and was hiding because he didn't want to go back into school. The nice lady over climbed the locked school gates into the deserted playground, persuaded the small boy down and led him back towards the school.
And the deputy-head came out and thanked the nice lady for helping the boy. He did, didn't he? Of course he did. Commonsense, isn't it?
Actually - and I'm guessing you know where this is heading by now; but don't laugh yet - the deputy head accused the nice lady of trespassing. You see they had a Health & Safety Policy, as the Head said, "our policy when a child climbs a tree, is for staff to observe the situation from a distance so the child does not get distracted and fall" and a Safeguarding Policy "We would strongly urge members of the public not to climb over a padlocked gate to approach children as their motives are not clear to staff. To protect children, we cannot assume that people who enter the school grounds without permission have innocent intentions and must act accordingly."
That evening a letter from the Head was pushed through the letterbox at the home of the nice lady telling her she'd been reported to the police. The next morning a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer) came to call who told her she had committed a trespassing offence by helping the small boy down from the tree.
You can laugh now. And read the full story for yourself. But be warned, it is from the Daily Mail and surely the Mail cannot really expect it's readers to believe that any adult - let alone professionally qualified adults, teachers no less - would behave in such a way? That would be just trespassing on common sense, wouldn't it?
