Ryotaro Wright Attacked At Forest View High School

A number of news outlets are this morning carrying a story about another kid getting a beating - Ryotaro Wright a student of Forest View High School, Tokoroa who was actually attacked whilst at school.

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"Whale muncher"
The allegations are that Ryotaro was dropped on his head by four bullies and his father told the NZ Herald yesterday:

"his son had been racially abused by four students over the past few weeks, including being called "whale muncher".
"I think they just think Asians are physically smaller than average Kiwis so it makes them easy targets. He's the type of boy who doesn't react normally, he sort of brushes things off."
On Tuesday morning, however, Wright believed his son was defending a friend.
"This big guy turned around and picked up Ryotaro and dropped him. I was told that these boys have been trying to bait Ryotaro for a while."

Forest View High School, whose motto is "Courage Knows No Defeat", recently honoured Ryotaro in its Premium Student Achievement Awards. He achieved the Year 9 JCEA with excellence having achieved at least 40 credits of the minimum 70 credits at the Excellence Level.
The attack left him with a potentially fatal blood clot which required surgery to remove, he may also suffer long term effects from a brain injury.
All Blacks members Richard Kahui and Ian Foster are both ex students of the school.

NZ second worst in world for school bullying

New Zealand recently scored second worst in the world for school bullying, ranking 34 out of 35 countries in a major international study.
Auckland paediatrician Ian Hassall said the high rates of bullying reflected a "punitive culture". Mr Hassall used to be the Children's Commissioner

"It's not just children who are bullied; adults bully as well," Hassall said. "We do have a punitive society that rather believes in punishing people and threatening them, so it's not surprising that children pick up on this and go punishing one another."

Other recent incidents

The attack comes just days after two sisters aged 13 and 14 were arrested after a mob attack at Fairfield College, Hamilton which took place last Wednesday.

There was a spate of seemingly random attacks on teenagers in June, see: Brutal attacks on teens. One of the attacks was on a 15 year old Thai student from Marlborough Boys' College who was punched repeatedly in the face.

In February two particularly disturbing incidents occured:

• A 10 year old boy threatened to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the Ascot Community School, Invercargill after he was bullied.

• An alleged gang fight involving members of the "Wax Assassins" broke out at Hutt Valley High School.

In August 2008 2 year 9 pupils from a Lower Hutt College were suspended after luring a 15 year old boy to a train station where he was beaten and left for dead.

See also:
news reports on the death of Takapuna Grammar School pupil Toran Henry


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