A notorious white supremacist who legally ran for the board of trustees at a Christchurch school has lost the election.
Philip Arps, who was jailed for 21 months after sharing footage of the March 15 terror attacks and in 2016 filmed himself delivering a pig head to the Al Noor Mosque, came in last place in his bid for election.
The father-of-six was controversially running to become one of five parent representatives at one of the most multicultural secondary schools in Christchurch, Te Aratai College.
Te Aratai College in Linwood is just down the road from Linwood Islamic Centre, a Sunni Islam mosque which Arps is banned from.
In July 2021, just under 65 percent of the college's students identified as non-European/Pākehā.
In Arps' candidate statement, he said he had "high concerns about the new social constructs pushed and becoming the educationally enforced norm within New Zealand's school curriculum for the purpose of grooming young minds".
His candidacy sparked calls to tighten rules for school board elections to eliminate a "grey area" that allows convicted criminals to meet the criteria if they have been jailed for less than two years or have served their sentence.
"Any member of staff or even a parent helper… need to have police vetting but that's not the case for boards of trustees," Christchurch City Councillor Sarah Templeton told Newshub last month.
But on Tuesday the election results were released, revealing Arps came in last place receiving 25 of the 958 votes.
The five new parent representatives of the board are Wayne Derham (18.5 percent), Jo-Anne Bethell (17.2 percent), Finley Larid (14.5 percent), Maxine Williams (14.1 percent) and Isla Gendig (13.7).
