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A recent rise in violence by groups of youths across the country appears now to be infecting the school system. According to a recent article in the Dominion Post, a pack mentality has developed within a group of 13 year old Hutt Valley High School students calling themselves the ‘Killer Coconut Krew’; a group which has reportedly terrorised a number of students, by ripping off their pants and violating them with “a variety of objects” including cellphones, a pair of scissors and a shoe (link). This appears to be part of a growing trend among young, predominantly Polynesian males apparently enamoured with US gang culture, roving around urban areas randomly attacking people without provocation. I have had my own experience of this.
What initially piqued my interest in the Hutt Valley High case however was the apparent blasé attitude by the school’s management, in particular that of its acting principal, Steve Chapman. When faced with the most serious case so far (involving sexual violation with an object on December 10), he had failed to contact police after three days, electing only to ’stand down’ six boys. Chapman’s justification for this bafflingly light response was a lack of evidence for the more serious allegations. Later in the Post article however, board of trustees chair Susan Pilbrow claims the allegations to be “minor” in nature. So which is it, I wonder? The allegations were found to be minor, or lacking in evidence?
This attitude of denial is completely at odds with a school system that has shown itself time and time again to be completely intolerant of any misdemeanors that are sexual in nature. One would normally expect that any such cases, minor or otherwise, to be vigorously investigated and prosecuted. We have cause to be interested why this has not happened in this particular example. With a growing trend of random youth gang violence in the wider community, we might also expect that if a school had opportunity to nip in the bud a similar phenomenon on their own patch, they would. I will be extremely interested in further developments in this case, and others like it.
