High school student pulls grand prank

The youth posted it on his Facebook page and within an hour it had gone viral. Photo / Thinkstock

It was meant to be the best excuse ever to get out of class - a bogus news report announcing New Zealand's biggest school would be closed due to Cyclone Pam.

But for one Rangitoto College pupil the prank has earned him a trip to the principal's office.

The senior student, whom principal David Hodge described as an IT whiz, used his talents to fabricate a news report supposedly from the New Zealand Herald website. The "story" claimed the college would be closed on Monday and Tuesday as Auckland braced for "heavy rain, severe gales and swells".

The youth posted it on his Facebook page and within an hour it had gone viral. "Social media, especially on a wet day, has an amazing ability to get a lot of attention," Hodge said.

By Sunday night, the fictitious report - which had spread to many of the school's 3000 students - was retracted and the school had posted a message on its website announcing classes would go ahead as usual.

The student's bogus message was online for six hours before the school was alerted to it and asked him to take it down. About 250 students failed to turn up to class - up 3 per cent on normal Monday absences.

For all the disruption the post threatened to cause, Hodge conceded it was clever and saw the funny side. But he was taking the opportunity to educate the prankster about the error of his ways.

While the youth thought the message would cause a stir in his cyber universe, he hadn't realised the impact it would have in the real world.

"There will be some sort of service around the school that [the youth] might well do, just as a way of embedding the message that you're running a really fine line and you need to be careful," he said.