Mother fears long-term health effects of vicious attack on Ashburton College student

Ashburton College principal Simon Coleman says a boy responsible for a classroom assault was sent home, and the school is following its discipline process. Photo / Ashburton Guardian

The mother of a boy attacked at Ashburton College says she is scared her son’s long-term health will be impacted.

Last Friday her 14-year old-son, who is a Year 9 student, was badly beaten by another student in class.

Nandita said another student repeatedly called her son the N-word in two incidents in a Food and Nutrition class .

She said her son asked him to stop, and during the second incident pushed him away.

The other boy then started punching and kicking her son.

She said her son fell and hit his head, and lost consciousness as the teacher came towards him.

Nandita the school called her, saying her son needed to go to hospital to check his head.

‘His face was badly swollen, his body was shivering, and he couldn’t open his eyes’

“So we rushed to hospital and the condition we saw of my son, oh my God, it was really unbelievable. He was lying on the bed, his face was really badly swollen, his body was shivering, and he couldn’t even open his eyes.

“But when he heard his mum and dad’s voice he was in tears.”

She said he was still feeling the impact of the injuries, with headaches, dizziness, lack of strength on his left side, lack of appetite, and a sore jaw.

Nandita said they had shown the medical report to a friend who is a doctor, and they had warned there could be future side effects.

She is on a migrant visa and they will need to return to Fiji in January next year, and she said she was worried about long-term health care for her son.

She said she could not even think about when he might be able to return to school until they got a better sense of the health impacts.

The incident has been reported to the police, but they are yet to hear if charges will be laid.

Ashburton College has said the behaviour was completely unacceptable, and went against everything the school stood for.

Ashburton College principal Simon Coleman said the boy responsible was sent home, and the school was following its discipline process.

The student who attacked Nandita’s son did not have a history of bullying others, and none of the students who witnessed the attack heard the use of the N-word.

Coleman said the school fully supported the family’s decision to report the incident to the police.

Ashburton College has been the subject of several reports of fights and bullying in recent times.

Last year two violent fights were filmed.

The school confirmed it was aware of the recent fights and disciplinary action had been taken.

In September 2022 the school board said media reports about bullying allegations weren’t a fair representation of the school.

It followed a 1News investigation into the school’s culture, with more than a dozen families claiming their children suffered from ongoing violence and threats.

The allegations covered a 10-year period, however, the school board chair believed when issues arose they were managed appropriately.

- RNZ