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Abbey Caves death: The safety plan which was supposed to keep students safe
The school that took a group of students caving as severe flooding spread across Northland had a safety plan that said to check for bad weather, a document reveals.
The body of a teenage boy was found late Tuesday night after a Whangārei Boys High School trip to the Abey Caves ended with a student being swept away.
MetService had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Northland on Monday at 10.30am and again on Tuesday at 8.19am. The caving group was due to leave the school at 8.45am
Whangārei Boys High School’s safety plan also shows the school was aware the caves were prone to flooding.
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School risk assessment and management plans are meant to help teachers understand and identify significant risks and support them to manage that risk.
In case of heavy rain or deep water, the safety plan said an instructor should “check weather leading up to the trip”.
If there had been rain before heading into the caves, it was the instructors’ responsibility to check water levels before embarking.
If water was too high the trip was supposed to be postponed.
Susan Edmunds/Stuff
A body was found late Tuesday night after a Whangārei Boys High School student was swept away while caving.
The school’s standard operating procedure also called for the teacher in charge of the trip to “check the weather periodically during the days leading up to each trip”.
The teacher should also do a “final weather check” on the morning of the trip to make sure it’s still safe for the students to go.
The procedure said Whangārei Boys High School had the right to cancel the trip “at any time” if it was deemed to be unsafe.
The school’s policy for school trips and education outside the classroom was set to be reviewed in this month.
The previous week, the Whangārei Boys High School outdoor education calendar shows that a year 12 sea kayaking trip was cancelled, due to bad weather.
Susan Edmunds/Stuff
Emergency services rushed to the Abbey Caves on Tuesday after they were alerted a student was missing.
Questions are now mounting over why the outdoor education class proceeded in the face of worsening weather.
An email obtained by Stuff shows the year 11 Whangārei Boys’ High School class were originally meant to go rock climbing, but the trip had been switched to caving when it became clear bad weather was on its way.
The email, from the school’s head of outdoor education Stevie Huurnink, was sent to parents last Friday.
It said due to “forecasted rain” they had to modify “planned trips”.
Breakfast
The group from Whangārei Boys High School were in Abbey Caves when it was hit by a severe weather event.
The mother of a boy who saw their classmate swept away in floodwaters said the caving trip should never have gone ahead given the rainfall warning.
One person Stuff spoke to said the school played “Russian roulette” with children’s lives.
WorkSafe has opened an investigation into the incident and the police are investigating on behalf of the Coroner.
Whangārei Boys High School has been approached for comment and are yet to respond.
