Kamo High School principal Natasha Hemara is urging parents to talk to their children about behaving responsibly after a fight between students at her school.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
Kamo High School principal Natasha Hemara is urging parents to talk to their children about behaving responsibly after a fight between students at her school.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
A fight between two groups of students at a Northland school was filmed by student onlookers and posted on social media sites, prompting the principal to write to parents.
It has also sparked a warning from internet watchdog Netsafe that students who posted the video could face action for breaching the Harmful Digital Communications Act.
Kamo High School is again in the spotlight after police were called just before midday on Tuesday following the fight, which involved a BB gun but it wasn't pulled on any student.
It's unclear what triggered the fight between the boys and who separated them but it's understood other students helped diffuse the unpleasant situation.
Principal Natasha Hemara said the school has engaged outside expertise to help with further skills and de-escalation techniques to manage unsafe situations if they happen in future.
The fight happened just over a month after she started in her new role. Hemara is the third principal of the school since 2015 and replaces Jo Hutt, who controversially resigned in April to pursue other career options.
Hemara has penned a letter to parents, urging them to also reinforce what was acceptable at school and online and that physical violence was not the way to sort out problems.
"I can assure you that no firearm was pulled on any student. The students in question were believed to have a BB gun in their possession, the police were called as a precaution," she said.
"What was very disappointing was the large crowd of students that chose to watch the fight. Some also chose to film the altercation and then further share the video footage on social media platforms.
"We will also be taking the time to ensure all students are able to recognise that this behaviour is not entertainment, nor should it be normalised in our school environment.''
Police recovered the BB gun and a knife and three students allegedly involved in the fight have been referred to Youth Aid.
They are not treating it as a gang-related incident.
Hemara said although the physical violence involved four students only, it was unacceptable and that student safety and wellbeing was her school's absolute priority.
She said their highly capable counselling team in the Student Support Centre was available to help any students who may have concerns about what they may have witnessed or heard about Tuesday's event.
"Likewise our pastoral team are available to support students with managing issues in a restorative way so that such situations are not escalated. We ask that you encourage your child to seek support if they need it," she urged parents.
"I hope that this both reassures you about (Tuesday's) events but also demonstrates how seriously we take our role in supporting our students in making the best choices possible as these are important life lessons for our rangitahi."
A fight between four students at Kamo High School was filmed and the footage uploaded to social media sites.
Photo / Tania Whyte
Netsafe chief executive Martin Cocker said people, including students, needed to be careful about what they posted online as they could potentially be breaching the Harmful Digital Communications Act.
"Posting materials like that can lead to future incidents when the school is looking at de-escalating the situation so it will be contrary to what the school is trying to achieve.
"Some people may feel they have to respond to what they've seen on social media in that it could encourage them to take action that's undesirable. Social media can take on a life of its own."
Cocker said social media posts have the potential to re-traumatise those who were filmed.
There was no harm in filming incidents deemed anti-social, he said, as long as they were being done to record evidence rather than solely for entertainment and were then uploaded to the social media websites.
He said Hemara did the right thing by writing to parents, which was the first thing Netsafe would encourage schools to do from a safety perspective.
Cocker urged anyone who saw inappropriate posts on social media to contact Netsafe which has the ability to request they be removed.
Netsafe research early this year showed almost half of New Zealand teenagers have been exposed to potentially harmful online content and a quarter of them have been bothered or upset by something that happened online in the last year.
Of the study's teenage participants (aged 13-17), 36 per cent said they had seen violent images online and 27 per cent viewed hateful content.
Participants were questioned about who they turned to for help in the wake of an upsetting online incident. An overwhelming 69 per cent chose a parent, 37 per cent a friend and 17 per cent a sibling.
