School kids banned for spitting at Whangarei library staff

Unsupervised Whangarei Intermediate School pupils are banned from the town's public library after a spitting incident.

A Whangarei school has banned unsupervised students from the town's public library after library staff were spat on by a pupil.

Whangarei Intermediate School principal Hayley Read contacted parents via email this week to let them know that a small number of students had been "disgustingly disrespectful" toward Whangarei Library staff.

One student had spat at a library staff member from the building's second floor, leading to an after-school ban for students in WIS uniform.

Students who attend an after-school homework club at the library are not included in the ban.

However, unless WIS students are with an adult or supervisor, library staff have the school's blessing to ask them to leave.

In Read's 10-year tenure, nothing like this had happened before, she told parents.

Whangarei Intermediate School have taken strong action after a spitting incident at a local library.

"I am so disappointed for our students who behave brilliantly all the time. Unfortunately this isn't the situation for all of our students that attend our great school.''

The ban stands until further notice, and students have been asked to let teachers know if they were aware of incidents of anyone "terrorising" staff or the public.

Read declined to comment further on the email sent out to parents.

Whangarei Libraries manager Paula Urlich said there were occasional isolated incidents of students behaving badly.

"There might be isolated examples of poor behaviour from time to time, but not often, and we welcome all well-behaved customers to the library, regardless of their age."