Bay Of Plenty Times

Students attacked at Tauranga Girls'

A teacher and three students were assaulted during an attack involving seven teenagers at Tauranga Girls' College - and the mother of one victim is "disgusted" at how the school has handled the incident.

Year 13 student Fay Baylis, 17, said she was "strangled" in the attack in which a group of girls pushed their way into a physics class and shoved a teacher out of the way.

Another student in the class was punched in the face by one of the girls when she tried to go to Fay's defence.

A third student who also tried to stop the attack was assaulted by a third girl, who Fay says "threw her off her seat, smashed her into the table and then repeatedly started punching her on the ground".

The girl suffered bruising, a headache and vomiting that night.

As the attack ended and the girls left the classroom, Fay says one of them said: "I'm going to kill you."

Fay and the other girls received visible injuries in the incident.

"I had large red marks on the back of my neck for a week and neck ache," Fay said.

The group of seven girls followed Fay to her classroom after a lunchtime incident in which a ball was thrown at Fay and her friends. Fay said she did nothing to provoke the other group.

The incident happened on June 7 but Fay and her mother Jill Baylis have today publicly spoken about it because they are unhappy with how the school is handling the matter.

One girl has been excluded from school.

Two girls were suspended, two were stood down and family meetings were called for two of the others.

Fay and her mother initially approached the police about the incident but say they were advised to let the school deal with it.

Mrs Baylis told the Bay of Plenty Times she was disgusted at the school's response and lack of communication with her family. She wants the girls involved to offer letters of apology to her daughter, the other two students assaulted, and the teacher.

"I spent [almost two weeks] waiting for the school to contact me to say 'this is what I have done about the girls and here is a letter of apology for your daughter'."

Principal Pauline Cowens, who spoke to Mrs Baylis on Monday, told the Bay of Plenty Times she was satisfied with how the school was dealing with the incident, which was still in the process of being resolved.

An apology would be given to the victims, she said, as that was part of the condition of the other girls returning to school.

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