Over 100 students were taken into police custody on Friday, April 1 after a fight broke out between boys from Liahona High School and Tonga College at a bus stop in central Nuku'alofa.

The students were released in the same evening without any criminal changes, with a warning that they could face possible charges, conviction and even imprisonment for such violent fights.

Police Commissioner Chris Kelley said he gave the male students a tough talk over the consequences under the law before they were released to the custody of their parents.

He said male students in the fight were as young as 12 and 13 years old.

Bullying

Commissioner Kelley said there was no good reason for the fight last Friday. "But what is clear is that it all comes down to bullying and seeing whose going to get the better of the other," he said.

He said that school fights were a continuous problem in Tongatapu but it was evident that the fights were carried out by only a few students from just a few high schools.

A majority of the high schools in Tongatapu had never been involved in any school fights "and the police gives credit to them", he said.

"There is no logic to student fighting and causing violence on the streets of Nuku'alofa. Why should the residents of the capital have to put up with such fighting?" he said.