KEY POINTS:
A girl who received a broken nose in a school fight was suspended, despite her attacker subsequently receiving a police warning.
Jade Gilling-Goldbert needed an operation to repair injuries sustained in an altercation at Havelock North High last July.
School officials gave both students two-day suspensions and claim
Jade was "equally as aggressive" as the other girl.
But Jade's parents say the school inquiry was a "farce" after the other student received a police warning from a Hastings Youth Aid officer in September.
The school said it knew nothing of the warning and defends its inquiry, but Jade's mother Joanne wants the suspension wiped from her daughter's record.
"They just wanted it over and done with," she said. "There was no skill, no maturity or wisdom with the whole thing."
Joanne says her daughter was playing rugby with some male students when she was the victim of a "vicious" premeditated attack by another student who arrived with three friends.
Jade said she can't remember much about the fight but there was "heaps" of blood.
"It was all in my hair and over my shirt."
When she returned from her suspension she was surprised to found the other girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was still a pupil.
"It was like my whole body ran cold and my heart just stopped. I was just shocked and upset that someone could actually do that to me."
She said she decided to stay at the school because moving would show "that they've got to me".
Joanne has been fighting hard to have her daughter exonerated.
She has twice met principal William Adams and exchanged a series of letters with board of trustees chairman Peter Hensman.
A letter from Hensman to Joanne said the other girl also sustained "serious injuries", including bruising to her face, arms and legs, and abrasions to her head.
Hensman said he was surprised to learn the other girl had received a police warning, but the board was "absolutely confident that a fair decision was reached in treating both students involved equally".
"Mrs Goldbert's position is that she believes her daughter's version of the events over that of the witnesses, who reported to the school's management that the two girls were equally to blame."
Hensman said the board re-investigated the matter last August and were satisfied "the correct outcome was achieved".
While unable to discuss the specific case, Constable Scott Webster of Hastings Youth Aid said it would not be necessary to tell a school about a warning to one of its pupils.
The father of the girl who punched Jade declined to comment, saying they had put the issue behind them.
