Mackay parents arrested after trying to take daughter during school lockdown

A Queensland primary school was forced into lockdown as two parents tried to take their daughter against the orders of Child Safety.

Mackay police arrested parents near a primary school after they tried to take their daughter against the orders of Child Safety.

A Mackay region primary school was forced into lockdown as two parents tried to take their own daughter against the orders of Child Safety.

The parents, who cannot be named as it would identify a child witness of crime, had attended a meeting with Child Safety officers on the morning of November 3.

Police prosecutor RM Saunders said the officers told the parents they were going to take their children into care.

The parents then responded they were leaving to remove their daughter from school with the officers phoning the school principal to warn them and enacting a temporary assessment order that blocked the parents from taking their child.

Mackay Magistrates Court on Wednesday heard the parents were aggressive and angry and were in the principal’s face as they demanded to know where their daughter was as the school “had no right” to keep her from them.

Mr Saunders said the principal then placed the school into lockdown only for the mother to break the bolt on the classroom door and make her way inside.

The father followed and began tugging at his daughter as she sat on the teacher aide’s lap, as staff asked the parents to leave while the children grew distressed.

Mr Saunders said the teacher aide felt “scared and intimidated” as the father angrily shouted at her in close proximity to hand over his daughter.

He managed to grab his daughter and the parents left then left the school only for the police to arrest them on the Bruce Highway about 1.30pm, with their daughter no longer in their care.

The parents were released on bail three days later.

Fisher Dore solicitor Antoinette Moreton said the father had made an early plea of guilty to wilfully disturbing the good order of management of a state educational institution.

Ms Moreton said he was a machinery operator who also sold produce grown on their farm north of Mackay, alongside his partner and mother of his child.

She said prior to the incident her client had received a phone call from someone telling him they witnessed his daughter in “significant distress being ushered into a classroom”.

She added the parents had not known about Child Safety’s order until they arrived at the school but he accepted his behaviour was “unacceptable” and had since engaged in counselling.

McKays Solicitors lawyer Robert Beamish said the mother and accepted full responsibility for her actions, also making an early plea of guilty to the same charge as her partner, who she had been with since she was a teenager.

Magistrate Damian Dwyer said their early pleas reflected their remorse and things had seemingly “settled down substantially” since the incident.

Mr Dwyer warned the father to take greater care in future as his history of violence placed him at risk of jail time.

He fined each parent $750 and recorded convictions.