A local youth is lucky to be alive after taking an early morning dip in St John's College pool yesterday.
It's understood a group of friends entered the Hastings' school grounds about 9am and scaled the pool fence for a swim.
One got into difficulty and nearly drowned at the scene before
police and ambulance staff were called. He has since been discharged from Hawke's Bay Hospital.
Deputy principal Paul Dine said he doubted the group would have been young, given the height of the pool's fence.
``They would have needed to climb a fair height,'' Mr Dine said.
He had no further details of the incident but said trespassing was not an ongoing issue at the school.
``I've checked with our caretaker this morning and there's no damage that we're aware of.''
Hastings District Council said the rules for domestic swimming pools also applied at schools.
The Fencing and Swimming Pools Act requires fences constructed with paling or vertical grill to be 1.2 metres tall.
Swimming pool fences constructed of wire mesh, which had a 50mm web hole or bigger, were required to be 1.8m tall.
The fencing requirements were designed to keep 6-year-olds from accessing swimming pools, not teens or adults.
The council said it was aware St John's College had a mesh wire and corrugated iron combination fence which was taller than 1.8m and so complied with the Act.
* On December 30, 2007, Havelock North woman Sheree Margaret Robson, 25, died after she and a friend scaled a fence and jumped into a covered swimming pool in Havelock North Village Pools about 3am.
She and a man climbed the 1.8m fence to get into pools.
