The New Zealand School Trustees Association and the Ministry of Education have spoken out in defence of Putararu College's handling of a case of text bullying that's being partly blamed for a student committing suicide.
Alex Teka, 12, was found dead a day before the school year began.
The two agencies say the school acted responsibly and did everything right when Teka complained about a campaign of text and email bullying.
"They had a really tragic start to the year... a new principal in place and I couldn't fault them in any way in terms of the processes they followed," says Peter Murphy of the NZ School Trustees' Association.
The Ministry of Education has guidelines for schools dealing with general bullying and are looking at specific ones for text and email bullying.
