Four 17-year-olds in Hamilton, New Zealand, who tried to rob a bank as part of a school exercise to study the impact of crime, have been expelled and the course scrapped, a school official said this week.
The attempted hold-up of a branch of the National Bank recently outraged police and banking officials, coming less than a week after the murder of a bank teller in Wellington during a hold-up.
They had been sent by tutor Sandra Rawiri to 'examine the feelings of an offender preparing and committing a crime'.
But at the bank the four handed over a note demanding money. When the teller called the police the students ran back to their classroom, which is across the road from the bank.
Te Wananga o Aotearoa training institute chief executive Rongo Wetere said Ms Rawiri had been suspended until he was satisfied she was suitable to teach.
One of the three students has been expelled.