Principal says ex-student attacked Havelock High student on school grounds

Havelock North High School principal Greg Fenton said that the assault was a very unusual event at the school and staff were deeply disappointed in the treatment of the student. Photo / Paul Taylor

A social media exchange led to a former Havelock High School student entering the grounds with two others to assault a pupil, the school's principal says.

Principal Greg Fenton said a male pupil was assaulted by the former student on Thursday during an interval last week, while two other male accomplices filmed the incident and uploaded it to social media.

Fenton said the victim of the assault did not appear to have any injuries and had told one of the deputy principals that he was fine.

"The deputy principal was in contact with the boy's mother, and while he went home at lunchtime on the Thursday, he was back at school on Friday and is here again today."

He said the perpetrator of the assault was known to the school but the other two males were not and the school had left their identification to the police.

"Both myself and the deputy principal contacted the parents of the perpetrator of the assault, and informed them of our disgust at their son's behaviour. The police were informed, and the school has also trespassed the boy.

"This is a very unusual event at our school and we are deeply disappointed that one of our students should be treated in this way."

A letter outlining the incident was sent to the entire school community on Friday following the completion of their investigation.

In it, Fenton condemned the uploading of the video and the social media engagement with the incident and said the school was committed to the safety of its students.

"I am highly disappointed in this whole sad scenario; I am sad for the victim of the assault and his parents, I am sad for the parents of the perpetrator, who are extremely embarrassed, and I hold in contempt the attacker and his accomplices for their actions."

The incident follows another assault at Napier Boys' High School nearly two weeks earlier where a widely circulated video on social media showed a student being struck and knocked unconscious by another student.

At the time New Zealand Principals' Federation president Cherie Taylor-Patel said there had been a rise in the number of assaults being filmed and posted on social media during Covid.

"These incidents are becoming more common, but we need to push back and ask why this is happening. What's causing the aggression?"

Netsafe's online safety operations manager Sean Lyons said in response to the Napier Boys' High School incident that he hoped schools would alert non-profit online safety organisations like Netsafe about violent videos uploaded to social media.

He said they were potentially harmful for those being filmed and viewers.

"Some people record them to be helpful bystanders, so it can be used as evidence. In those cases it's laudable.

"But in some cases, videos are used to try and shame or threaten or harm."