The trees have stood along a fenceline bordering Colenso Ave for about 60 years and were an integral play area for children in the junior school.
Students put pen to paper expressing their sadness at the vandalism. Some age groups wrote their concerns in the form of a letter to the editor.
"Someone in our class was crying when we were told about it," pupil Thor Larsen, 9, said.
They asked, "who would do such a thing?", especially when school grounds were often used by community members after hours and at weekends.
A gate closest to Colenso Ave was open at the time of the incident as there was an issue with the lock, but that had since been resolved.
Archie Park, 9, pointed out a cruel irony seeing students spent a lot of time working with Napier City Council to beautify nearby Gleeson Park.
"We have helped planting trees and cleaning up rubbish, now somebody has poisoned our trees," he said.
Children huddled around the trunks eyeing the holes and excitedly gathering under their favourite tree - a spot that was perfect for playing shop - especially in autumn when leaves turned yellow and could be used as "money".
Police became involved, posting letters in letterboxes informing nearby residents of the "gutless act" and pointing out the illegal and unsafe nature of poisoning trees on school grounds.
"Intentional damage is a crime and punishable by a large fine or imprisonment," Senior Constable Bruce Miller wrote.
"If sufficient evidence exists I will be happy to charge any offender for this gutless act. Not only has it damaged the trees it has also put students in danger of touching the poison used in the holes."
Mr Miller cited previous incidents in which people felt they would "benefit" from the demise of boundary trees, but could not say for sure that was the case here as no approach had been made to the school.
"Damaging or attempting to kill the trees is the wrong way of going about it," he said.
Chloe Poulter, 10, said: "I would like to say whoever did this is a horrible person ... if the trees were shading houses they could just ask for them to be cut back."
Mr McLeod said there was no reason to believe anyone was unhappy with the trees, though neighbours who had moved on, had approached the board to have them trimmed in the past. Their request was granted and nothing more came of it.
Letter to the editor
Dear Sir,
I am writing this letter on behalf of the students at Napier Central School to inform you about a tragedy that has happened in our school.
Eight of our school's precious trees have been poisoned.
Holes were drilled into them and the poison was poured into the holes.
We don't know when this cruel act was carried out but people are assuming it was over the holidays.
These trees are over 60 years old and about 12 metres tall. They provide shade and as we only have a restricted amount of trees at our school this is vital.
Children love playing amongst these trees, pretending fallen golden leaves are money to buy stuff like mud cakes in the so called 'shops'.
The teachers at NCS are distressed about this vandalism and the children are questioning 'who would do such a thing?'
We hope anyone with information about the poisoning will contact the Police or school office,
Yours sincerely,
Elle Uttley, Room 1
