The bully who created a Facebook page to mock another Otumoetai College student has been stood down from school and others who joined in must carry out work around the school grounds as punishment.
Principal Dave Randell spent most of yesterday investigating the incident that erupted on the internet over the weekend and featured on page one of yesterday's Bay of Plenty Times.
Mr Randell spoke to about 20 students, ranging from Year 9 to 13, who had commented for or against the page entitled "Putting your stick away after a hard day of being a social outcast."
A student at the college told the Bay of Plenty Times the page was about a boy who carries a stick around school and is occasionally asked to do tricks by fellow teenagers, but is then sometimes mocked afterwards.
The page sparked outrage online with a Trade Me message thread set up to encourage people to ask Facebook to ban the site, which was later removed.
Mr Randell tracked down and spoke to the bullied Year 9 boy who was the subject of the site and pictured on the page, saying he was surprised and impressed by his attitude to the incident.
The boy told Mr Randell: "Obviously they're the ones with the problem and I'm not letting them get me down."
Mr Randell said: "I was impressed with his attitude. I didn't expect that to be quite honest."
He had also spoken to the boy's mother, who told him her son enjoyed school and had a lot of good friends and was not being bullied.
"Mum said he loves school which is really good," he said.
Mr Randell said the creator of the page was, "no longer a member of this college at the moment".
"He was speechless with his parents. He just didn't realise the implications of what he did," Mr Randell said.
But he was impressed the boy had the guts to explain what he had done to his parents and front up to the principal's office.
Mr Randell expected to meet with him and his parents next week to discuss his future at the college and how he was going to make things up to his victim and the school.
Mr Randell said he had spoken to all the students involved and about five were to carry out "community work" on the school grounds today.
Most were not the type to get in trouble and were remorseful, he said.
"They're pretty good kids."
The mother of one boy who simply wrote "Golden" on the page said her son may have been referring to the tricks the boy did with his stick.
"We haven't discussed the issue, I must say."
She said Facebook was a "really cool media" but was abused by a few who had issues.
"Sometimes people say things and sometimes it shouldn't be written down," she said.
The father of a 13-year-old boy who commented on the page said he was "extremely disappointed" by his son's actions.
"I wouldn't suspect him of being like this normally. He's not a kid that would bully other people so I was surprised to see it and incredibly disappointed. His punishment will be severe, I just don't condone that in any way, shape or form."
Another parent said he would be having, "stern words" with his son. "I take bullying as a very serious subject."
He said his son was still a child and putting others down happened amongst that age group.
"But to willingly do out there and hurt somebody, that's not his style."
Tauranga police Senior Sergeant Mark Pakes said police needed to be aware of these type of incidents so they could be "stomped" on before escalating further.
"We want to hear about it because you don't know where that could lead to. It needs to be shut down as quickly as possible before it gets out of control."
Mr Pakes said half the time schools may not even be aware it's going on.
"If it carries on there are offences under the Harassment Act where you can start looking at criminal liability for people."
Mr Pakes said students needed to be reminded to tell parents, teachers or the school before bullying escalated.
Related stories:
Otumoetai teens bully boy on Facebook
Our View: Bullies must not be tolerated