Westland High School has suspended one student - and more could follow - as a result of a classroom brawl last week.
Principal Iain Murray has said the school is taking the incident seriously and students involved could face in-school disciplinary action, stand downs, suspensions or expulsion.
It is understood one boy was suspended on Friday.
Mr Murray did not answer calls from the Hokitika Guardian last week, but he told Stuff the fight involved about eight boys and had been "brewing" on social media outside of school.
He denied the school had a bullying culture.
In a school newsletter e-mailed out on Friday and highly critical of the Guardian coverage of the issue, he said Westland High School undertook a formal, independent survey through the New Zealand Institute of Educational Research on student well-being last year.
"The results of the survey showed our students felt safe and supported in school, at a level significantly better than the national average."
However, several parents are unhappy with the school's handling of the issue and claim it does have a bullying problem.
One parent said the lunchtime fight last Wednesday came as no surprise.
Video footage of the fight shows at least a dozen boys fighting in a classroom, throwing punches and with one boy pinned against a wall. The language is expletive.
The parent said the fight was broken up by other students, not by a teacher.
The parent said numerous reports had gone to the Ministry of Education from a number of parents on related issues in recent years.
"I'm definitely not the only parent that has got these concerns." In the newsletter, Mr Murray said the school was discouraged by the actions of some community members who contributed to a "biased and misleading article by spreading rumours based on snippets of information, without the full truth."
"This includes the sharing and passing on recordings of the incident which only incites fear and alarm. This behaviour is irresponsible and reckless and does not aid the school in achieving a good outcome."
Yesterday, Mr Murray responded by telling the Guardian that Westland High School would not be providing any further information to the Guardian, as the school no longer had confidence the story would be balanced, or accurately reported.
Separately, he told Stuff the video did not show the lead up to the fight or the aftermath.
A teacher was just outside the door and stepped in to break it up soon after the video ended, he said.
The Hokitika school was now back to full governance, and had the full support of the Ministry of Education and the broader community, he said.
- By Janna Sherman of the Hokitika Guardian
