Allegations have been made that an attack made on Muslim pupils of the school was racially motivated.
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- MP calls for halt to school attack surmise
The petition, which calls for the school to address the incident, has received over 40 thousand signatures.
One of the alleged victims was Hoda Al Jamaa (17), who spoke to RNZ earlier this week.
She said she was filmed while beaten and had her hijab forcibly removed by pupils of the school.
American model Bella Hadid posted a message of support to her Instagram account, which has 49 million followers.
She said the incident made her ‘‘angry and sick to my stomach.’’
‘‘I am so sorry to the ones that have felt this kind of disrespect.’’
Kiwi celebrities also put forward messages of support.
Sonny Bill Williams posted a video to his Instagram page sending out support to the girls involved.
‘‘These thugs may rip your headscarves off your head, but they’re never rip Islam or Allah from your hearts.
He hoped the attackers were met with ‘‘the full force of the law.’’
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Former Prime Minister Helen Clark also commented, saying the ‘‘shocking behaviour’’ needed to be addressed by the school urgently.
‘‘Such behaviour has no place in NZ’’.
In a statement, police confirmed a group of Muslim pupils was attacked by three girls in their early teens.
‘‘The altercation and the possibility of the video circulating on social media is very concerning to us.’’
The three alleged offenders had been identified and an investigation of the incident was under way.
