White supremacist Philip Arps has failed in his controversial bid to join the board of trustees at Te Aratai College in Christchurch.
Arps was jailed for 21 months in 2019 for sharing footage of the Christchurch terror attacks at Al Noor and Linwood mosques on March 15 that year. Fifty-one people died in the attacks and many more were injured.
Te Aratai College, which has a roll of 870, is just 1km from Linwood Mosque.
Arps' children are students at the school.
In 2016 Arps filmed himself leaving a severed pig’s head at the door of Al Noor Mosque.
Te Aratai College Principal Dick Edmundson says, “we are delighted to have the five trustees we have elected and look forward to moving on as a school.”
“This is something that needs to be looked at, establishing a benchmark for suitability, to prevent a similar situation from happening again, especially in schools that don’t have sufficient candidates to hold an election," he said.
Christchurch City councillor for Heathcote Sarah Templeton, who has children at the school, said last month a grey area in the rules allowed Arps to run for a place on the board.
"The school has worked really hard to check whether he's eligible and it is a grey area, and that needs to change.
"Any member of staff or even parent helpers ... all need to have police vetting, and that's not the same for board of trustees' members, even though in high schools' cases, board of trustees have student reps on them."
Federation of Islamic Associations chair Abdur Razzaq earlier said Arps was probably aware he would not get the position, but wanted to provoke a reaction.
"What we are seeing here is a trend ... which we've already seen in the US and it's being mimicked over here.
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