Vice-principal may go over bullying

Hutt Valley High's board will consider the future of deputy-principal Steve Chapman after a damning Ombudsman's report into bullying at the school in 2007. Photo / Thinkstock

Hutt Valley High School's board is to consider removing the school's deputy principal, who was in charge in 2007 when extreme cases of bullying occurred at the school.

Steve Chapman was the acting principal of the school when the incidents occurred.

They included cases of a group of six teens ganging up on Year 9 students during lunchtimes, dragging the students to the ground, removing their pants and violating them with screwdrivers, pens, scissors, branches, drills and pencils, as well as a student being beaten unconscious and another case of a student being burnt with a lighter.

Earlier this week the Ombudsman's Office issued its findings following an investigation into bullying at the school.

It found there was a systemic problem of violence and the school failed to address the problem.

The Ombudsman made recommendations on how bullying could be countered, such as mandatory anti-bullying programmes in schools and empowering victims of bullying.

When the cases became public, Mr Chapman said he had no regrets on how he handled the situation, but has since acknowledged the school failed to deal with the problem.

Ross Sinclair, who became the school's principal in 2008, told Radio New Zealand Mr Chapman has not been asked to step down.

However he said the Board of Trustees will discuss that possibility when it meets to discuss the ombudsman's report.

Mr Sinclair said two board members remain from when the incidents took place.

"They have been absolutely unequivocal in their view that the school and the board got this wrong ... the board was entirely unanimous in its approach to accept the ombudsman's report, to apologise for the errors that were made and to make sure that every possible step has been made to implement the directions of the ombudsman's report."

Mr Sinclair said while the report found mistakes had been made, it also acknowledged significant changes have been made at the school.

"In 2007 we were dealing with an extreme set of circumstances and we did not handle it properly," he said.

Meanwhile the president of the Secondary Principals' Association Patrick Walsh has backed calls for the Government to do more to support schools against bullying.

He said a summit on bullying, which included Education Minister Anne Tolley, and representatives from police, Social Welfare and Child Youth and Families, while "quite useful", failed to provide any real solutions.

He said the agencies all have to work together.

"What we strongly suggested was that we needed a multi-disciplinary service, a wrap around approach because we identified in most communities there is often 20 or 30 families that are responsible for most of the crime, and they're the ones who are also causing the difficulty in the schools."

Mr Walsh said there had been a swing away from restorative justice to giving the victim a voice and being harsher on offenders that are involved in very serious assaults.

"We don't have a problem with that, but it does raise wider issues if we are going to increase exclusions and expulsions for serious offenders, what is the ministry going to do in terms of picking those students up, what's available in terms of alternative education, and secondly, how are we going to deal with offenders in the home environment, because those that have serious violence and anti-social behaviour are not created by schools, they come from a home environment where it is taught."