Plea for parents to rein in kids

A brawl involving more than a dozen students and adults is among a string of incidents that has seen a high-decile Hamilton high school pleading with parents to pull their children into line.

The letter to parents from Rototuna Senior High comes about a month after an alleged brawl that involved 15 students and six adults at Rototuna Village shopping centre.

The school asked parents to discuss with their children how they “represent you as their whānau”, and said it would have a staff presence at the shops to support the community.

Other behaviours causing headaches for local businesses include kids congregating in the doorway of Woolworths (previously Countdown), riding their scooters in store and across the entrance, and generally being being rude and abusive.

A nearby worker, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, said when some of customers called the school reporting poor behaviour, they were told that issues after school hours and outside of school grounds were outside the school’s control.

The worker didn’t blame the school, but thought most of the behaviour came from ignorance instead of malice, and the school could teach the children to behave better.

“There’s just too many students to control. You have 3000 children finishing school together,” they said.

The 3000 students include 1346 from Rototuna Junior, 843 from Rototuna Senior, and 839 from Hamilton Christian School, according to the 2023 roll number from Education Counts.

In an email response, Rototuna Senior

High principal Miranda Makin said the incident initially occurred between members of the public and students from two other schools.

“Matters occurring outside of school grounds do not always fall under school jurisdiction; however, we support as needed,” she wrote.

Dianne Lim, who works at a restaurant in Rototuna Village, said she has seen unruly behaviour from students every day ever since she started working there one year ago.

The 40 minutes right after school were usually the most chaotic, said Lim.

But it had quietened down in the last two weeks when two teachers started patrolling the area every day for 20 minutes.

Shoplifting from both senior and junior students was common.

Woolworths declined a Waikato Times interview request, citing manager absence.

But in a statement, the company said that Rototuna High School students were no different from other customers.

“The reality is that 99% of our customers are fantastic and always treat our team with respect but unfortunately, in the last few years, we have seen a significant rise in the number of people walking through our doors that act aggressively.

“Across New Zealand, we regularly have instances of our team being spat at, called names and even shoved – all while simply trying to do their jobs.”

The nearby library Te Kete Aronui said while most students used the library to learn, a small number of students had also been vaping and behaving in a disruptive manner on its premises.

Libraries director Paula Murdoch said there had only been minimal damage to the library, confined to minor acts of vandalism.