No charges to be laid over Wellington school incident - police

Photo / NZH

Police are helping schools after another "invasion" at a secondary school which took place yesterday.

Kapiti Mana Area Commander Hamish McCardle said police will be addressing assemblies at both schools but are not looking at laying any charges.

About 20 boys, believed to be from Mana College in Porirua, allegedly went to Bishop Viard College at lunch time and threatened students on the rugby field. It is understood they were armed with a baseball bat.

Mr McCardle said by the time police arrived at the school yesterday afternoon, "there were a few Mana College students not in the right school grounds and they were ushered back to their school".

He said police were now playing a role of helping schools to work out what happened.

"The genesis of this is between two boys inparticular, one of whom is an ex-pupil of one of the colleges and has since moved to the other college. They had a grievance when they were at college together and now the grievance continues," Mr McCardle said.

He said the principals of both schools believed the grievance had been sorted out but "obviously there is still water to go under the bridge".

Bishop Viard College principal Hedley Aitken met with police this morning and will talk to Mana College.

Mr Aitken said a group of "outsiders" came to his school but teachers and senior pupils saw the group off.

"We had a group come on to the property, they came in a threatening manner and we had to disperse. We did that relatively quickly," he said.

Mr Aitken said senior students stepped in to calm younger ones down.

He said he was working with the other college to find out exactly what took place.

Mr Aitkin said in his 13 years at the school, nothing like an invasion has happened.

Mana College principal Mike Webster has made a short statement.

"We have become aware of an issue that occurred [yesterday], that we will be investigating with Bishop Viard College and the police. When we have the full information about this situation, we will then develop collaborative solutions to whatever problems we find."