A vicious brawl among school girls from Manurewa High School in South Auckland has gone viral, with footage of the scuffle garnering more than one million views online.
The school's principal Pete Jones said what happened made him feel "sick" and Counties Manukau police central area commander Inspector Julia Lynch said the shocking footage is the latest in a string of "absolutely disgusting" similar posts on social media.
"It is concerning that these things are happening. We've got young people on social media...organising crimes, looking at stealing cars, doing ramraids, aggravate robberies and obviously organised fighting as well.
"It's absolutely unacceptable. The behaviour is disgusting and shouldn't happen."
Social media was heightening the risks of such incidents and children as young as 10 had been involved in organising crimes online.
She said police were working hard to identify the youths involved in the South Auckland bust up.
Last night it emerged that a South Island school is dealing with pupils involved in online arguments that got out of hand.
Several male pupils at Mount Hutt College in Methven are being dealt with by staff after verbal sparring online turned physical, principal John Schreurs revealed.
Two groups of pupils were engaging in online "banter" that escalated, leading to a "ruckus" at the school this week involving about six pupils, he said.
Another fight had also been organised online, but the school stepped in before that happened.
While he remained tight-lipped about the specific nature of the incident, Mr Schreurs said the school would not tolerate any kind of violent behaviour.
"Anything physical is not tolerated, and is serious.
"It was a scrimmaging sort of situation, but that said, we've made it very clear that can't happen."
Taking disagreements onto social media could prove inflammatory, and it allowed far more people to get involved than there otherwise would be, Mr Schreurs said.
"One of the frustrations is students using social media, that provokes things a little bit."
Mr Schreurs would not discuss the pupils' specific punishments.
Meanwhile Mr Jones said there would be consequences for the pupils involved in the South Auckland brawl, possibly including suspension.
"Once we've worked with police to identify exactly who they are then there's processes within the school, so they'll be referred to the board of trustees. There's a consequence to actions."
Richard, a father of two pupils at Manurewa High, told Newstalk ZB the street brawl was the talk of the town before it happened.
The fight was organised through Facebook and attended by about 50 teenagers, watching or participating.
Richard said his daughter told him everyone at the school knew about it.
A witness told TV One News that whoever posted it online was possibly after attention and had made Manurewa High look bad.
"There were heaps of people around but no-one stopped it," the teenage girl said.
"Everyone just had their camera out."
- By Lauren Priestley of NZME News Service and Daisy Hudson of the Ashburton Guardian
