Rotorua Boys' head says sorry for student attack

Rotorua Boys' High principal Chris Grinter. Photo / The Daily Post / Andrew Warner

The head of Rotorua Boys' High School has apologised for an attack outside John Paul College involving his students.

Boys' High principal Chris Grinter has also warned his students about their use of Facebook after comments posted on the social networking site sparked the fight outside the Catholic school.

Students from Boys' High were thought to be responsible for an attack on a John Paul College student. The incident happened about 8.30am on Wednesday.

John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh said a group of about a dozen Boys' High students arrived at a college entrance with one of the students allegedly assaulting a student from his school.

Mr Walsh said Facebook was to blame for the incident.

As news of the incident spread a post appeared on the Rotorua Boys' High memes page on Facebook, which stated the page apologised for the incident on behalf of the school.

The post stated: "If you guys didn't know, a single year 11 JPC was beaten up by a large group of RBHS students early this morning.

"This kind of behaviour is disgusting, and is not in any way condoned by this page. It's all fun and games when we joke about it and make memes about neighbouring schools, but when it becomes physical and people are targeted, then this has been taken too far.

"I hope most of you aren't involved, and hope those who were get punished to the full extent possible. We are here to make light-hearted jokes about ours, and other schools in Rotorua and do not want to hurt anybody in this way. To the JPC student that was attacked, I would like to personally apologise on behalf of RBHS, and wish you a speedy recovery."

Mr Grinter said the students involved in the incident had been dealt with by the school and their families informed of what had happened.

The fight was because of comments which had been posted on Facebook about a girl by a John Paul College student. Mr Grinter said a Boys' High student was a friend of the girl and took exception to the online comment. Students were being reminded about how quickly things could escalate in an online forum.