Teen talked out of knife attack

Teacher pacifies 15-year-old who armed herself to avenge playground taunts

A playground argument that apparently saw a 15-year-old schoolgirl taunted over the death of her father nearly ended in tragedy when she went to a nearby store and bought some knives.

She then went back to school, looking to settle the score with the girls who had teased her.

Hamilton Girls' High School went into lockdown for about 15 minutes yesterday after the Year 11 student went to the nearby Warehouse and bought two steak knives during her morning break.

The armed girl then returned to school looking for one girl in particular but was persuaded by a teacher to put the knives down and was arrested by police shortly afterwards.

The incident comes just three days after a 13-year-old boy stabbed Te Puke High School maths teacher Steve Hose in the back of the neck and in the shoulder and against a backdrop of rising violence against school staff.

A Hamilton Girls' student told the Herald the girl had been in an argument with another group, one of whom insulted her father, who died recently.

"One of them was taunting her about her dad ... she threatened her at interval saying she was going to do some pretty bad things but no one ever takes these things seriously," the student said.

"But then in period four she came back with a knife and started chasing her around ... no one could believe it."

Principal Mary-Anne Baxter said that in her 40 years of teaching and the last six as head of the decile 6 school, which has a roll of about 1500 students, she had never seen an incident like this.

She said the situation was saddening and many of the students involved were "quite shaken".

"Of course we work really hard as a school and have a very good pastoral system and yet things like this can still happen."

Ms Baxter would not comment on the girl's background but said she was "troubled" and her circumstances were "particularly sad" following the death of her father.

The girl has been suspended indefinitely pending a meeting with the board of trustees.

"I believe she may be in a deep grieving situation but the school cannot condone that response when she is angry.

"The fact that any person who responds to a situation in a violent way like this has to be a concern for us as a society," said Ms Baxter.

Senior Sergeant Pete Van De Wetering praised the school staff for their response to the incident, which he said was "very serious".

He said police were yet to talk with the teacher, who was too upset to be interviewed at the time.