Student fight spurred by social media remarks
Tauhara College principal Ben Hancock says an incident between college students that happened off site and outside of school hours was blown out of proportion by rumours circulating on social media.
Mr Hancock said students were misled by taking false information as fact and that had led to a fight several days later in which a student was hurt.
He said there had been an incident between students that had taken place on the weekend prior to the fight. That issue had been resolved by those involved. However on social media, rumours about what had happened had been turned into something bigger and other students had accepted what they had read as fact, he said.
“Students made up their own minds about social media statements and misinterpreted them.”
Last Wednesday there was a fight on Crown Park when a student was hurt. The student was taken to hospital for observation. Teachers were nearby and intervened to break up the fight up, Mr Hancock said.
“It was an unfortunate situation, it wasn’t acceptable and we’ve been trying to deal with the situation as best we can.”
He said most of the problem took place outside school time but was brought into school by students making their own judgments.
“The original incident that started it happened off site nowhere school, but now we have to help clean it up.
“There’s so much misinformation out there. We talked to the school [in assembly the next day] and said: ‘When people don’t deal in facts and deal in rumours, people can get hurt’.”
Mr Hancock said the school made sure everybody was safe and called police, who took statements from the students involved. No formal complaints have been laid with police, Mr Hancock said, but some students would be appearing before the school’s Board of Trustees this week.