Pupils at a Pietermaritzburg school celebrated their academic year-end by flinging condoms filled with urine and faeces at their teachers and colleagues.
The Witness newspaper reported that 34 Eastwood High School pupils were arrested when celebrations on the last day of classes on Tuesday allegedly turned violent.
More than a dozen pupils were still in custody after failing to get bail in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court.
The newspaper reported that stones were thrown and a pupil's thumb was severed. Condoms filled with urine and faeces and eggs were thrown at teachers and other pupils.
School vehicles and buildings were damaged in the chaos.
The mother of one of the pupils who were arrested told The Witness her son in Grade 12 and his classmates had been celebrating the last day of attending classes when "things got out of hand".
"It's a school custom, it's done every year. They were throwing eggs, balloons and condoms filled with water and Jeyes fluid at their friends and the principal called the police on them."
She said the pupils ran away and tried to hide in bushes and were chased and "brutally" arrested by the police, who also allegedly sprayed teargas at the pupils.