Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Casuarina Square centre manager Polly Lamond says a 48-hour ban on school students was an effective interim measure and meetings will be held to devise long term term plans if issues continue

Transcript

Casuarina Square centre manager Polly Lamond says a 48-hour ban on school students was an effective interim measure and meetings will be held to devise long term term plans if issues continue · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: As I've spoken about. You will recall earlier in the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: week we did talk about the ban on students from
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  Speaker 1: six local schools attending Casarina Square following a space of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: fights at the complex. Now Center management, police and security
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  Speaker 1: of work together enforcing the forty eight hour band, which
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  Speaker 1: has now come to an end. It was in place,
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  Speaker 1: as we know, for Casarina Senior College, Sanderson Middle School,
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  Speaker 1: Dripstone Middle School, Darwin Middle School and Darwin High School,
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  Speaker 1: as well as Nightcliff Middle School and Casarina Square Center
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  Speaker 1: Management manager Polly Leamon joins me on the line right now.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Polly, Good morning Katie, Polly.
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  Speaker 2: How has the ban gone fantastic? I want to commend
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  Speaker 2: school students on their overwhelming compliance with the band. We
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  Speaker 2: appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, did you have many of them sort of
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  Speaker 1: rock up still wanting to come in, Polly?
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  Speaker 2: There were a few on the first day, but like
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  Speaker 2: I said, ninety nine percent of them were very compliant
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  Speaker 2: with our requests. We really didn't have any trouble. There
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  Speaker 2: were a number of students who were there to be
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  Speaker 2: collected by parents or to jump on the bus, and
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  Speaker 2: of course that's totally acceptable. We're happy to facilitate that.
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  Speaker 2: We want everyone to get home safely. But really, over
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  Speaker 2: the two days, we haven't had any issues from students
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  Speaker 2: from those schools.
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  Speaker 1: Has it provided that bit of a stop gap that
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  Speaker 1: you needed?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, yep, we really wanted a bit of a
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  Speaker 2: like you said, a stop gap, a bit of a
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  Speaker 2: pattern interrupt so that we can regroup and set those
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  Speaker 2: standards of behavior for those students and what our expectations
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  Speaker 2: are around visiting the shopping center.
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  Speaker 1: Polly, what's been the feedback from you know, the different
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  Speaker 1: businesses that operate inside Casuarina Square and also from the
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  Speaker 1: shoppers and staff.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So we've actually had shoppers call in and say,
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  Speaker 2: you know, they're very supportive of it, call through to
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  Speaker 2: our customer service desk and give us feedback on it.
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  Speaker 2: Some people of us stuff to extend it, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: we really want to give school students the opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: do the right thing. The feedback from our retailers was
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  Speaker 2: overwhelmingly positive. You know, they're happy to see us do
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  Speaker 2: something like this and send us strong message that this
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  Speaker 2: type of behavior isn't acceptable in the shopping center. So
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  Speaker 2: I really haven't had anyone come back to me with
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  Speaker 2: negative feedback on it.
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  Speaker 1: No, well, this is the thing. It was all about
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  Speaker 1: making sure that everybody inside the center is safe. And
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  Speaker 1: I tell you what, I've seen some more of that
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  Speaker 1: vision from what had occurred last week, and I've got
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  Speaker 1: to tell you, like, I think theres have made absolutely
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  Speaker 1: the right move after seeing more of that vision and
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  Speaker 1: some of what you know, a number of those students
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  Speaker 1: were doing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Look, to be honest, it was pretty appalling,
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  Speaker 2: you know, not just the fighting, but the students standing
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  Speaker 2: around and filming. It was really appalling as well.
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  Speaker 1: What's the plan from here, Paul, Because obviously it's provided
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  Speaker 1: that bit of a stopgap. Only time will tell whether
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  Speaker 1: you end up with sort of hundreds of students turning
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  Speaker 1: up this afternoon or over the next couple of days.
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  Speaker 1: But what's the plan from your perspective?
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  Speaker 2: Like I said, we're going to give students the opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to come back and do the right thing, and we
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  Speaker 2: really do hope that that happens. If it doesn't, we're
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  Speaker 2: going to regroup internally within our business. We'll consult with
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  Speaker 2: the Department of Education, police and the Social Order Response Team,
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  Speaker 2: and we'll put some measures in place based on that consultation,
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  Speaker 2: But really what we want to do is give young
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  Speaker 2: people the opportunity to come back and do the right thing. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and this is a thing. Everybody's really happy for
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  Speaker 1: kids to be there. Like you said the other day,
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  Speaker 1: you know, having a frozen coke and a bit of
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  Speaker 1: a gossip. But you can't be turning up to the
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  Speaker 1: shopping center and thinking that you can get into an.
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  Speaker 2: All in brawl. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: Now, tell me have you got additional security or any
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  Speaker 1: measures in place as you allow the students back over
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  Speaker 1: the coming days.
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  Speaker 2: We do have another Yeah, a few additional guards for today,
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  Speaker 2: and we'll see how we go today and see what
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  Speaker 2: we do for the rest of the week.
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  Speaker 1: Pollie, what would you say to anybody that you know, Look,
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  Speaker 1: I haven't had this feedback, but what would you say
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  Speaker 1: to anybody And it sort of says, oh, I can't
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  Speaker 1: believe you know that the shopping center did this. It's
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  Speaker 1: discriminatory towards school students.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I would probably say to them that don't come
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  Speaker 2: and complain to us about there being these issues at
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  Speaker 2: the shopping center if you're not going to support us
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  Speaker 2: putting some of these measures in place to be perfectly blunts.
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  Speaker 2: We need to be doing things differently. If nothing changes,
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  Speaker 2: nothing changes. So I haven't had that feedback from anyone,
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  Speaker 2: and I hope people are on board with what we're
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  Speaker 2: doing because we really are trying to put the safety
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  Speaker 2: of our shoppers and our retailers at the forefront.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And you know you want seniors, you want
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  Speaker 1: everybody to be able to feel safe to get in
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  Speaker 1: there and do the shopping and do what they need.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Polly Leamond, I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for catching up with us over the last couple
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  Speaker 1: of days, and we'll keep in contact and hopefully things
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  Speaker 1: stay come at Casuarina Square for you.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you.