Short-cut to exam ends in hospital

The Kelston Boys High School student was impaled jumping this fence. Picture / Brett Phibbs

A student running late for an exam impaled himself on his high school fence yesterday.

The 14-year-old had been trying to get over the 2.4m-high wrought-iron fence around Kelston Boys High School when he slipped just after 9am.

It took emergency services about an hour to free him and he was taken to the Starship for surgery.

The iron spike entered his thigh at the back and the tip was just pointing out the front, said a firefighter at the scene.

The teenager was given morphine by ambulance staff and family members rushed to the school to support him while the Fire Service used cutting equipment to remove part of the fence.

Glen Eden fire station officer Terry Batt said the boy was lucky the spike had missed major arteries.

"Yeah I was running late," the boy had replied to Mr Batt's comment that "usually people slip on a fence when they're running away but you're trying to get into the school".

Kelston principal Steve Watt said the Year 10 student was on his way to an NCEA level 1 maths exam and would have had plenty of time to get there.

He was 200 to 300 metres from the school gate when he decided to scale the fence by climbing off a neighbouring fence railing.

"You would look at it and say, 'There's no way I can get over that', but ... teenage boys decide that they are bullet-proof," Mr Watt said.

"He's a nice kid but he just did a stupid thing."