Catholic schools working to clear air after fight

Moves have been made to improve relations between two Auckland Catholic boys' schools following a fight which left a 17-year-old Samoan student critically injured.

The De La Salle College pupil was on his way to an after-ball function, organised by parents of Auckland Girls Grammar students, with about five other boys when he was injured in the early hours of Sunday. He has not yet been named and remains in hospital in a drug induced coma.

A witness said the student made some comments to a group with affiliations to St Paul's College in Ponsonby and a "one-on-one" fight started.

The student was hit in the head by a 20-year-old former St Paul's student, starting a fight among eight other boys from both schools.

Police are investigating reports of an ongoing dispute between the two schools but have yet to establish what the fight was about.

St Paul's principal Denys Marra said there appeared to be "something" between a small number of boys, although from St Paul's end, they seemed to be past students.

"We can't nail it down. Maybe it's an area thing, possibly a church thing."

Mr Marra said efforts were now underway to improve relations between the two schools.

"We are working through a cultural system using matai [a Samoan of chiefly status] and once that step is done we will be working with the students.

"We have apologised formally out of sympathy and regret that this ever happened."

Mr Marra expected the apology and healing process to take several days. The injured boy is Samoan.

De La Salle principal Brother Steve Hogan said there were "rare isolated tensions among schools in general". He felt the incident was not school based or solely directed at the Mangere East college.

Detective Senior Sergeant Gerry Whitely said police are still investigating the incident and are yet to identify the St Paul's group.

Auckland Girls' Grammar principal Liz Thomson said the afterball was a private, ticketed function organised by a group of parents.

She said most of the girls were not aware of the street fight until they arrived at school on Monday.