Editorial: School parents should abide by the rules

Editor Andrew Austin says the right of schools to set reasonable rules for their students received another blow yesterday because some parents decided to behave as badly as their children.

The right of schools to set reasonable rules for their students received another blow yesterday because some parents decided to behave as badly as their children.

St Bede's College students Jordan Kennedy and Jack Bell were thrown off the rowing team after breaching Auckland Airport security on Friday. They were caught riding on the baggage conveyor at the Jetstar carousel in the arrivals hall at the airport's domestic terminal and given formal warnings by police and the Aviation Security Service.

The school decided the boys were in breach of the school's code of conduct and banned them from competing at the 2015 Maadi Cup regatta, which started yesterday morning. But the boys' parents sought an urgent injunction at the High Court in Christchurch and Justice Rachel Dunningham granted an interim injunction to prevent St Bede's from stopping the boys rowing at the Cup.

This case has similarities with the St John's College hair saga, but it is worse because the boys were doing something that was dangerous and they deserved to be disciplined.

It is incredible that this matter ever got to court. The boys were students of the school and they, and their parents, would have been aware of the code of conduct and the consequences for breaching it.

If parents want to send their children to a school with a good reputation then they should abide by the rules that gave that school its reputation in the first place.

Sometimes rules simply need to be obeyed, especially if one agreed to respect them in the first place.