The president of a local sporting club is urging parents to not leave their children unattended before and after training sessions as the community continues to come to terms with the deaths of young basketballers Dau Akueng and Chol Achiek.
West Point Soccer Club president Guillaume Nollet said his club issued a statement to all parents after Cobblebank boys Dau,15, and Chol,12, were killed while walking home from basketball training earlier this month. Seven people were charged on Friday with their murders.
“We have more than 450 kids, so the issue we have been having is parents coming and dropping kids at the car park, leaving them there and picking them up when they are done,” Mr Nollet said.
“A lot of people use the club as a form of childcare, so they drop their kid at 6pm when training starts, go and do their shopping, so they are not at the ground to supervise.
“We have kids waiting as long as two hours because parents drop them early and if the coach gets stuck in traffic, there is no one there to watch them.”
Mr Nollet said while officials at West Point and many other clubs are happy to supervise young players, they can only do so much.
“We have kids as young as seven, so if kids are injured, we need to be able to contact parents quickly– and if they [parents] are around it is much easier,“ he said.
“We always try to have someone in the clubroom so kids aren’t left alone, but at the end of the day it is the parents’ responsibility to manage their children.
“When we heard what had happened not all that far from us walking back from a basketball training, it shocked us.”
Mr Nollet said West Point had been encouraging parents to volunteer at the club to ease the issue and said other clubs could follow suit.
“We try to create this connection between, parents, team and the club, so we encourage parents to come and volunteer,” he said.
