Seventy watch attack on girl

A 13-year-old girl has claimed she was lured to a Wellington park, badly beaten by an older girl and left semi-conscious as up to 70 children watched the attack – filming it on mobile phones.

Police are understood to have searched the homes of several pupils and seized at least one phone as evidence. They are trying to obtain footage of the beating or incriminating text messages. A decision on charges is expected next week.

Education experts say cyber-bullying – the use of mobile phones and the internet to intimidate or bully – is a growing problem.

Children's Commissioner John Angus said the attack was a worrying offshoot of the speed of new forms of information technology.

"It's certainly upped the ante because the young girl who was beaten up is in a sense being assaulted again by having the pictures downloaded and spread among her peers."

The attack – estimated to have lasted between seven and 10 minutes – happened on Friday, October 16, at a Johnsonville park. It followed a flurry of text messages and involved pupils from Onslow College.

The victim was allegedly lured by the attacker's friend to the park. The attacker, aged 15, was waiting there, and up to 70 other schoolchildren had gathered.

Sources say the victim was punched repeatedly about the head and her head battered against the ground. She was left semi-conscious when her head hit a wall and did not remember the second half of the attack, a source said. She was later admitted to hospital with suspected concussion.

Although police youth aid officers have spoken to staff at the school, the attacker and her year 10 friend, who allegedly helped arrange the fight via text messages, remain in class. Neither has been suspended.

The school has sought legal advice and says it is powerless to formally discipline the pair until the outcome of police inquiries, as the attack happened off school grounds.

The victim has been taken out of the school for her safety.

Her parents took her to Wellington Hospital the night after the attack because she was suffering from vertigo, shortness of breath, and losing her balance. She was kept overnight for observation.

"I'd class it as a serious assault. That's certainly the way we're looking at it," said Sergeant Vaughan Mead of Johnsonville. "We've had varying reports but it may have been a large number [of spectators] ... possibly 60 or 70."

Onslow College principal Hamish Davidson said the school was co-operating with police, had put measures in place to ensure pupil safety and was also investigating.

"We don't have any evidence of anything happening at school that resulted in the incident. Before we can take any formal disciplinary statutory action, we have to have evidence of that link."

Secondary Principals Association president Peter Gall said schoolyard attacks had been uploaded to websites here and overseas, and cyber-bullying was implicated in several youth suicides.

There was often a "grey area" around duty of care responsibilities for schools when incidents happened off school grounds, he said.

VIOLENT SCHOOLS

* Violence and cyber-bullying are growing problems in schools and have also been implicated in youth suicides. High-profile cases include:

* About 20 Mana College pupils, armed with a baseball bat and metal bar, threatened pupils at Bishop Viard College in Porirua in September. It came two days after eight youths took a baseball bat to Auckland's Lynfield College and beat up a 14-year-old boy.

* A 15-year-old pupil at St Mary's College in Wellington was tormented by text messages for more than six months in 2007. She developed an eating disorder, lost 12 kilograms and spent three weeks in hospital.

* Four Hastings secondary school pupils were expelled after a pupil was assaulted in front of 30 spectators in 2007. The attack was filmed then posted on the YouTube website.

* Myles Dellar, 14, was beaten unconscious last year by classmates at a Raglan Area School social.

* Pupils at Auckland's St Paul's College posted video footage on YouTube showing organised scraps known as "fight clubs" last year.

* Nine Hutt Valley High School boys were dragged to the ground and violated by six classmates in 2007.

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