Student claims school threatened him with deportation for selling cheap uniforms

An Auckland student is claiming his school threatened him with deportation after he started selling second hand uniforms.

Former Macleans College student Jayson Fong told The AM Show the college tried to take advantage of his status as an international student when he started selling the uniforms.

It cost $260 to buy a boy's short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and a jacket from the school. Mr Fong's Facebook shop would sell the same items for $105.

"[They] called me and then they were like 'I need you to stop selling school uniform right now otherwise I'll report you to immigration and that might affect your visa condition,'" Mr Fong said.

International secondary school students under 18 must have written permission from their school and parents or legal guardians to work. 

Students over the age of 18 can work up to 20 hours per week during the school term.

Mr Fong, who is now at university, said he initially told the school he would not give up selling the uniforms, but changed his mind.

"I stopped afterwards anyway because I couldn't risk my immigration status obviously."

But he's now back at it and has set up a new Facebook page to sell the uniforms.

Macleans College claims Mr Fong also emailed the entire student body to advertise his shop at least twice.

Board of trustees chairman Richard Wilkie told NZME he viewed the emails a breach of privacy as they used a still-active school email of a student no longer at the college.

Mr Wilkie told NZME claims Mr Fong was threatened with deportation are serious and will be investigated.

"What really concerns me is that he has been contacted that he would be deported. We should see if that actually happened."

The matter will be brought before the board on Tuesday.

Newshub.