The following from Pam Vernon at EWR:
This surfaced today & I do not have all the details as yet, however it is a heads up to those parents who do not wish for their children to be swabbed. You may need to be proactive and assert your parental rights by making your wishes clearly known at your child’s school, and instruct your child what to do should any adult insist they are swabbed. It appears that the latter is what happened on this occasion, a child declining the procedure was ignored. This is an outrageous violation of human rights. No medical procedure is mandatory in NZ at this point in time.
The incident is described as it was reported to Billy Te Kahika in his live video (5 minutes in). Parents are also discussing it on social media. I will add information as it becomes available.
EWR
Martin adds: This has rather curious parallels with the Christchurch March 15 2019 school lockdowns in Christchurch in response to the mosque attacks. For many it was the first time we heard the term “Lockdown” and our first experience with children being detained at school without parental consent under “extraordinary circumstances”.
As Pam says, we will follow up on this story as the facts and detail emerge.