Dramatic videos released on YouTube have revealed a fight club operating in an Auckland Catholic school that could result in students being expelled.
The clips show students from St Paul's College in Richmond Rd, Ponsonby, kicking and punching one another in organised scraps otherwise known as "fight clubs".
The videos appear to have been filmed with cellphones and were complete with a gangsta rap soundtrack.
Some were posted days after a Takapuna Grammar schoolboy died after losing a fight that was videotaped. Toran Henry's mother found her only child dead in her garage on March 19.
St Paul's board of trustees spokesman Brother Richard Dunleavy told the Herald that when the college learned about the videos on Tuesday, it asked the police for advice.
St Paul's has since engaged independent investigator Peter Goddard to find out more about the fights and interview students.
The college has also sent a letter to all students and caregivers and is seeking to identify all the students involved, including the spectators.
Brother Richard said the videos were taken off the internet as soon as St Paul's found out about them.
The school was still not sure if the fights were actually real.
"They could be pseudo-dramatic or proper fights. It's certainly not typical of the school. They were very professionally done, round one, round two, round three ... It was smart presentation."
However, the boys involved would face the consequences if the fights were found to be real, Brother Richard said.
"If the students are found tobe engaging in a malevolent activity at all, they could face exclusion from the school for a time or even expulsion in extreme cases."
Students posting footage of schoolyard brawls on YouTube is not new. Auckland Grammar School, Tauranga Boys College, Orewa College and St Kentigern College in Pakuranga have all previously been identified in videos of students fighting while wearing their school uniforms.
