25 Mar 2015

Legal battle over rowers ongoing

8:38 pm on 25 March 2015

The deadline for two pupils at St Bede's College in Christchurch to continue rowing at the Maadi Cup has passed, and the boys have applied to the High Court for an extension.

Jack Bell (L) and Jordan Kennedy

Jack Bell, left, and Jordan Kennedy Photo: Facebook

Jordan Kennedy and Jack Bell breached security at Auckland Airport and were banned from rowing for the school at the event at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge.

However, their parents obtained an interim injunction from the High Court preventing the school from implementing the ban.

The interim injunction, which allowed the boys to continue rowing at the regatta, expired at 5pm today.

The parents were required to file for a substantive hearing by that time if they wanted the pupils to stay in the regatta, which finishes on Sunday.

If they did not, the original ruling from the school would have kicked back in, and the boys would have had to return home.

The boys' lawyer, Andrew Marsh, said they had been in discussions with the school all day.

He said they had applied to the court for a short extension to the interim decision, to give more time to file the statement of claim for a substantive hearing.

Mr Marsh said this would allow the discussions to continue.

It was not known if the application had been granted.

Board backs school's decision

The board of trustees at St Bede's College has backed the school's decision to impose the ban.

The board's chairman Warren Johnstone said it was disappointed the parents took legal action.

Mr Johnstone said the board fully backed the school's decision, which was taken after a full investigation and consideration of an appropriate penalty.

The board has been considering its legal options.