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Woman claims elementary school playground unsafe after what she found

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman is hoping for a major cleanup of an elementary school playground on the city’s west side.

She claims that playground is unsafe for children after what she found over the weekend.

Kara Hefley enrolled her daughter for kindergarten at North Wayne Elementary. She said she walked through the playground over the weekend and couldn’t believe the mess.

“I started looking around, I mean I just noticed a lot of the equipment, the ground is missing, the slide over there has a big crack in it and just trash everywhere,” she said. “As I was looking around, I mean it just became really ridiculous.”

Hefley said she was so bothered by what she saw she even took pictures.

“There was empty cigarette packs,” she said. “The biggest trash that I found was drug paraphernalia, which should never be here.”

She uploaded the pictures onto Facebook and reached out to the school for answers.

“You know had I not said something and something happened to somebody people would be asking why anyone didn’t say anything,” she said. “Why did people let kids play in these conditions?”

A spokesperson for Wayne Township told 24-Hour News 8 by phone, they are working to address the concerns.

Mary Lang said an inspector will do a walk-through of the playground sometime this week and they will check for the crack in the slide and the surface covers.

“I’m definitely glad that someone is going to come out at least take a look and fix some of it,” she said.

Hefley said she did what she did because of her five-year-old daughter. She wants to make sure her daughter and other kids are safe while playing.

“If she were to walk around and found something like that, I mean I don’t even know what I would have done especially if she were to get hurt,” she said.

The playground was inspected on May 26. Lang said everything checked out fine for the most part. The playground is open to the public.

The school is now asking people in the community to help them keep the playground clean.