Fraser High students walk out in protest against principal

Dozens of students at Fraser High School in Hamilton have walked out of class, protesting comments their principal made about rape and truancy.

Some parents have reportedly joined them, also outraged at principal Virginia Crawford's speech, given at a full school assembly last week.

Staff have been told the students are within their rights to protest, a staff member who wished to remain anonymous told Newshub, and at least 80 have taken up the chance.

The staff member said deputy principals supervising the protest have told students watching, but not protesting, to get back to class.

Ms Crawford last week said truancy can lead to being a victim of rape or domestic violence, making headlines here and overseas.

The school board defended Ms Crawford, saying the speech could be enough to put students on a more positive path.

The Ministry of Education also backed her.

"It's really important that children go to school every day," deputy secretary sector enablement and support Katrina Casey said.

"International surveys such as PISA have shown that attendance is one of the strongest drivers of student achievement."

What Virginia Crawford said
 

 "Every student who walks out of the gate to truant is already a statistic of the worst kind, highly likely to go to prison, highly likely to commit domestic violence or be a victim of domestic violence, be illiterate, be a rape victim, be a suicide victim, be unemployed for the majority of their life, have a major health problem or problems, die at an early age, have an addiction - drugs, gambling, alcohol or smoking.

"The more you truant, the more likely you are to end up as one or most of those statistics. I don't want you to be one of those statistics. Economic research confirms everything I am telling you. It's been proven. Some young people at Fraser today are still proving that message to be true."

Newshub.