Guards remain at college

Photo / File

Security guards remained stationed outside Opotiki College yesterday while its principal remained silent on sexual allegations involving his students.

A parent said she was horrified at the news reports and rumours circulating about the school and had considered pulling her daughter out.

Police are investigating the allegations and earlier confirmed the alleged incidents did not involve teachers or occur at the school.

Much of the school was allowed a brief reprieve from the scandal yesterday as All Blacks Liam Messam, Sam Cane and Tawera Kerr-Barlow visited the town. But college principal Bruce Dale was still not allowing media on to the school grounds or commenting.

The Herald called the mother of one of the students alleged to have been involved, however she declined to comment.

Opotiki Mayor John Forbes met yesterday with police.

He told them he didn't want to know the details of the allegations, but asked to confirm his suspicions that they weren't serious in nature.

"[They said] that it's a reasonably minor matter, sensitive, but minor."

Mr Forbes said it was a shame the school had been dragged into an incident that it had nothing to do with.

"It's not about the college, it's only a small number of our young people who just acted in a completely inappropriate way."

An Opotiki resident, who did not want to be named, said she wasn't surprised by the allegations and said promiscuous behaviour was pretty normal for young people in the town.

She'd heard about the allegations from a friend of her nephew who attended the school and had also seen posts circulating on Facebook, claiming the students were "hooking up".

However, the mother of a young girl who attends the school said she was horrified when she heard about the allegations through work colleagues.

Upset, she went to the school yesterday to ask if her daughter was involved.

"They said no, she wasn't ...but this morning I was going to pull my daughter out of school concerning all this stuff because my girl's got enough stuff without having to see the security guards outside. I don't really know what's going on, but it's been on the news, on the TV ... on Facebook. I don't know what's true anymore."

The woman said Opotiki College was a good school and all her kids had attended without any problems.

The college's board chair Fred Cookson was overseas and unable to be reached for comment, while the school's limited statutory manager Hineihaea Murphy was out of town and also unable to be reached.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education said it couldn't comment on the allegations as its role was to support the college to minimise disruption to the school and its students.