A mental health advocate says it is important to remember school bullies can change after National MP Sam Uffindell was stood down over "very concerning accusations".
On Monday it was revealed Uffindell had been asked to leave King's College as a 16-year-old after taking part in a group assault on a younger boy.
Speaking with media on Tuesday, Uffindell conceded he was a bully at school and "punched a few people".
"I was effectively a bully and I was a mean person and there will be other people at high school that I have hurt one way or another and for those people as well I just want to apologise for that. I'm not proud of it at all."
On Tuesday evening, a former flatmate accused him of bullying and aggressive behaviour while at university, which led to National Party leader Christopher Luxon standing him down while an investigation is carried out.
Uffindell said he rejects "any accusation that I engaged in behaviour that was intimidatory or bullying", but admitted drug use as a student.
Luxon said on Tuesday Uffindell "is not the same person he was 22 years ago as a 16-year-old".
Shaun Robinson from the Mental Health Foundation agreed with that sentiment, saying it is important to remember bullies can change.
"Yeah, absolutely [bullies can change]. I mean, we had a wonderful experience on Pink Shirt Day this year ... A parent sent us a message [that] said a child hit my daughter in the playground. Then Pink Shirt Day happened the next day. That child contacted us by email and apologised and said they realised how wrong they were," he told Newshub Late host Ingrid Hipkiss on Tuesday.
"We contacted them and created a little relationship there. So it's just a little spark of hope, but things can change."
Robinson said bullying remains a big issue in New Zealand and can have a "really devastating effect on people".
"You're talking about young people and children not feeling mentally, emotionally or physically safe in a school environment," he told Newshub Late.
"If the bullying is sort of attacking things about them as a person, so who they are in terms of the colour of their skin or their sexuality or their body shape, those are things cut fundamentally to a person's identity and can have a massive impact on their self-esteem and resilience going through the rest of their lives.
Robinson said schools need to create environments where bullying cannot thrive.
"I think bullying actually does damage to everybody. It does damage to bullies. It does damage to bystanders and of course, it does damage to the victims and many of us are all of those things," he told Newshub Late.
"But ultimately, the antidote to bullying is to create cultures within schools that are based around kindness, that is based around acceptance of difference and celebration, of the diversity of who New Zealand children are.
"We need to create an environment where bullying can't thrive rather than look for the bullies and try to sort of address that behaviour."
Watch the full interview with Shaun Robinson above.
