By ELIZABETH BINNING
Four students have been expelled from an Auckland boys' high school for indecently assaulting a schoolmate with an umbrella.
The victim was held down during lunchtime sport at Kelston Boys' and poked in the buttocks.
The expelled students are being dealt with by police youth aid.
Kelston principal Steve Watt yesterday
confirmed that a serious incident had taken place, but said it was not on the same level as the highly publicised Taradale broomstick sex attack in 2001.
In that case, seven Taradale High School students were sent to jail after they held a classmate down and violated him with a broomstick.
Mr Watt said the Kelston assault occurred towards the end of the third term, about three weeks ago, while the boys were playing sport during a lunch break.
It started with some name-calling and progressed to the stage where the victim was held by the other students and the assault occurred.
Mr Watt said the boy did not immediately report the incident but later told a teacher who questioned him after noticing he looked upset.
Although the boy did not want to lay an official complaint, Mr Watt said the school called the police and asked for the matter to be investigated because of its seriousness.
The four boys, all in the same year as the victim, were expelled after appearing before the school's board.
The school is working to enrol three of the boys into another school - a legal requirement because they are under 16.
The school's 1150 students were told at an assembly at the end of term that someone had been "poked in his private parts by an umbrella" and that such behaviour was not acceptable.
Today, as students return for the first day of term four, Mr Watts said he would consider how to reassure the wider community that Kelston Boys' was a safe environment for students. He said the school was proactive in promoting anti-bullying and zero tolerance to violence. All year 9 and 10 students went through an anti-bullying programme.
Mr Watts said the victim had received counselling and when he spoke to him before the end of term the boy was looking forward to returning to school.
"The boy who was a victim, as far as I'm aware, is totally comfortable with the way this has been handled and so are his parents.
"The four boys involved have left the school and there is a very clear message to the rest of the school that such behaviour is not acceptable."
Police spokesman Jayson Rhodes said police had treated the case as an indecent assault but it was not in any way "sexual offending".
