A Taranaki high school was quick to get a racist Facebook page made by students removed yesterday.

The page "S... Maoris never say" listed two Inglewood High School students as administrators and had been "liked" by nearly 10,000 people since it was set up on Tuesday.

Five complaints about the page were received by the Human Rights Commission and Facebook initially refused to take down the page.

Posts included: "Nah it's my car officer" and "Here's your bike back."

Principal Rosey Mabin said she was appalled at the page and the behaviour of students and others who had joined in.

"It's distasteful, inappropriate, offensive. I'm really saddened there are those kind of racist attitudes buried just under the surface. It would be nice to think in 2012 we would have moved on."

She said the school had immediately moved to get the page taken down after being informed of its existence by an upset member of the public.

"We didn't know anything about it because this is what they're doing at home in their own time."

Despite being unable to take responsibility for students' actions outside of school time, Ms Mabin said the school had chosen to intervene because of the repellent nature of the page's content and to prevent copycat behaviour among other students.

"Because one of the boys was obviously associated with Inglewood High School they've also brought the school's name into disrepute."

Ms Mabin said she had not yet decided whether to suspend or stand down the boys involved.

"The school will be dealing with the situation appropriately."

- © Fairfax NZ News