Badly behaved parents banned from South Australian schools Parents have been banned from entering the grounds of SA schools after repeated warnings about aggressive behaviour. TELL US: Does your school have badly behaved parents? ALMOST 20 parents have been barred from school grounds across the state for abusive or threatening behaviour. Education Department figures show principals have banned 19 parents since the start of last year - many for repeated incidents of abuse. It would not say which schools were involved. SA Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock said aggressive parents made it "difficult for schools to function properly." "I do hear about it happening and it can be quite upsetting for staff who have to deal with aggressive parents," Mr Portlock said. It has got to the stage where some parents have to wait outside the school gate to pick their children up. Mr Portlock said he had noticed an increase in serious incidents of aggressive behaviour "over the past few years." However, he did not elaborate or say which schools were involved. Mr Portlock's comments come as a southern suburbs primary school warned parents they would be banned for aggressive behaviour after a spate of abusive incidents in its front office. Aberfoyle Park's Thiele Primary School informed parents in its March newsletter: "Aggressive and abusive behaviour (especially towards office staff who are there to help) is unacceptable, will not be tolerated and is not something we want in our school." Principal Shaun Coghlan said the school had "several incidents" earlier this year where parents verbally abused its front office staff. He said the school had not had any incidents since the notice was printed and had not yet barred any parents from entering its grounds. Mr Coghlan said one incident was resolved in the Government's Parent Complaint Unit (PCU), which was set up by former education minister Jay Weatherill for parents who felt their complaints were not being properly handled by schools or regional offices. It has dealt with 224 complaints from parents this year. An Education Department spokeswoman said principals had the power to ban someone from a school for up to three months, but that this decision was "not taken lightly." "Before seeking a prohibition notice, a principal must consider if there is any other way of dealing with the situation, while taking into consideration the potential impact a notice could have on the person's child or children," she said. A person can be barred for misbehaviour, including offensive language, putting the safety of another person at risk, and offensive, disorderly, intimidating or violent behaviour.