Alexandra Police were called to a bb gun incident at Dunstan High School last Friday, which resulted in a Year 11 student being stood down for a day.

Senior Constable Graham Perkins said the student turned up at school after purchasing a $5 toy gun from the Giant Department store, and when he showed it to a friend, the incident escalated.

“The friend grabbed it out of his bag and started firing it at other kids. 

He said ‘let’s go out into the field and pretend it’s a real gun’.” 

The gun came with plastic pellets that can still hurt people when shot at close range, he said.

Snr Const Perkins said that was the part that police were concerned about, because it could have sparked an Armed Offenders callout, as well as causing the school to go into a lockdown, and wasting a lot of time and resources.

The students were sent to the acting principal’s office and the toy gun seized and confiscated, before police were called and three officers turned up to talk to them.

“It’s just those comments that caused us some concern. It could have been quite a different outcome,” Snr Const Perkins said.

The 15-year-old student who used the gun, not the student who bought it to school, was the one stood down, he said.

Acting principal Bryce Clapham said while it was a low level incident, which had the potential to become a significant event, he was pleased with the way in which his staff responded.

“The police were involved as I inquired about the legalities of the gun being used. As always, we took this opportunity to speak with the rangatahi involved and their whānau, about making positive choices and looked at what learning could be taken from the experience.”