Disgraceful attitude from Hutt Valley High School

The Dom Post reports on an attack on a pupil at Hutt Valley High School where the 14 year old had his pants pulled down and was violated with an object.  One can only assume he had said object inserted into his anus.

Amazingly the school did not call the Police, and are defending their decision.

Acting principal Steve Chapman dealt with the assaults by standing down the pupils.

The matter was not referred to the board, as is required for serious cases of assault requiring disciplinary action, such as suspension or expulsion.

Mr Chapman said yesterday that he had no regrets about how he had handled the assaults: “It wasn’t an assault where somebody had blood spilt.”

This is beyond appalling.  Imagine if boys had inserted an object into a girl’s vagina – they would be behind bars.  And a similiar case of school boys inserting an object (a broom stick if I recall) into someone’s behind in the Hawke’s Bay led to jail sentences of two and a half years.

Let us look at the logic of Chapman’s contention that if there is no blood, it is minor.

A common assault conviction has a maximum one year jail term (s196 Crimes Act 1961). Even if it is deemed assault with intent to injure it is only a maximum three year term (s193).

Now what Chapman’s pupils have done is (allegedly) sexual violation – this is what the Taradale pupils were charged with. And sexual violation has a maximum penalty of 20 years (s128B).

If I was a parent with children at that school, I would be very very worried about the judgements made to protect pupils.  I mean not only did it not get reported to the Police, it didn’t even go to the Board.  Heads should roll.