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The white statue of Saint Patrick outside St Patrick’s College in Kilbirnie, Wellington, has been vandalised.
The statue was covered with red and yellow tags including swear words.
The attack has been blamed on McEvedy Shield rivalry, following Wellington College’s victory on Tuesday.
The track and field competition, named for St Pat’s Town old boy Dr Patrick McEvedy, who donated the wood shield.
This year Wellington College was the winner, with just over 212 points. St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie came second with a collective score of 179.5 followed by St Patrick’s Silverstream with 119 points. Rongotai College came last with 38.
Rongotai College has also been hit twice in the space of three days.
On the weekend the school’s sports changing rooms were tagged.
Then late on Monday night, the outside of the school’s special needs classroom, brickwork and front entry signs were defaced.
Wellington College principal Gregor Fountain said he was “appalled” at the actions “made in the name” of Wellington College.
Fountain said he and Wellington College’s head prefect met with the head prefects, principals and caretakers at both Rongotai College and St Patrick’s College on Wednesday morning to apologise for the vandalism.
He would be working with the Police and other schools to identify the people involved, he said.
It is not the first time that college rivalries over the McEvedy Shield have resulted in property damage.
Ahead of the competition in 2016, staff and students at Wellington College found obscene graffiti, including metre-high male genitalia and “F… you” scrawled on the new $1.4 million turf, which was partly funded by Wellington ratepayers.
It was signed “SPC” – an acronym for St Patrick’s College – and blue paint on the Frank Crist Centre read: “See you at McEvedy” and “You started this”.
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