A furious mother is demanding answers after her young son was left behind on a school holiday program excursion to a public pool.
Stephanie Pita’s son Shane, 5, was stranded at the Parakai Springs pool near Auckland for more than an hour after staff from a school holiday program didn’t realised he was missing and left without him.
Shane was having fun on a bouncing castle when he saw the bus leave without him.
No one realised Shane was missing until his grandmother went to pick him up.
Auckland youngster Shane Pita was left stranded at the Parakai Springs pool (pictured) after school holiday program didn’t realised he wasn’t on the bus
Stephanie Pita was at her father’s hospital bedside more than 600 kilometres away in Wellington when she got the call her only child was missing
‘My son got left behind at Parakai pools today with the school holiday program he attended,’ Ms Pita posted on Facebook on Friday.
‘They did not notice him missing till my mother in-law went to pick the mokos up and notice my son wasn’t there. They did not know my son wasn’t on the bus. They did not do a number check. My son was terrified.’
She was at her father’s hospital bedside more than 600 kilometres away in Wellington when she got the call her little boy was missing.
While program organisers have since apologised, it’s not enough for Ms Pita. ‘We shouldn’t have to go through this,’ she wrote to an organiser on Facebook
‘It’s the worst call you can get, being told ‘we can’t find your child’,’ Ms Pita told Stuff.
‘It really makes my blood boil that they had no idea he was missing at all. He was near water, anything could have happened.’
While program organisers have since apologised, it’s not enough for Ms Pita.
‘We shouldn’t have to go through this,’ she wrote to an organiser on Facebook.
‘Nor do we want any other child/family to experience something so scary.’
She said the ordeal would have been avoided if there had been a roll call and will meet with the West Auckland Maori community trust to ensure it never happens again.
A Parakai Springs (pictured) employee found Shane wandering around the carpark unsupervised
‘We had to register him, and I don’t see the point in registering him if they don’t even do a roll check,’ Ms Pita told the New Zealand Herald.
‘No one should have to go through that.I trusted them with my son and thought he was going to be safe, so for them to let me down like that is really sad.’
Parakai Springs manager Dion Tilson told Stuff that a member of staff found a child wandering around the carpark unsupervised.
While ‘initially upset’, the child appeared ‘cheerful’ while being entertained by pool staff, before holiday program organisers picked him up.
Te Whanau O Waipareira declined to comment to both Stuff and New Zealand Herald.
While ‘initially upset’, the child appeared ‘cheerful’ while being entertained by pool staff, before holiday program organisers picked him up