Abbey Caves victim's parents call for stricter outdoor education rules

The parents of a teenage boy who died during a school caving trip hope the tragedy will lead to stricter outdoor education rules so no other family has to experience their pain.

On 9 May last year, 15-year-old Karnin Petera, known as Tino, was swept away by floodwaters in Abbey Caves, on the outskirts of Whangārei.

WorkSafe said the 16 other boys and two adults on the Whangārei Boys' High School outdoor education trip were lucky to get out alive.

During sentencing last Friday, the school board was ordered to pay more than $500,000 in reparation to the victims.

A fine of about $300,000 was remitted because of the school's inability to pay.

Now Tino's grieving parents, Alicia Toki and Andre Petera, hope the tragedy will spur the Ministry of Education to strengthen its guidelines - for example, by making outdoor education trips subject to the same rules as adventure activity providers, especially when it comes to water activities.

They also want the school to further improve its health and safety practices, and everyone organising outdoor activities to be aware of the changes caused by climate change.

"Tino loved outdoor education and he learned so well in the Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) environment. We also really support outdoor education. But we just don't want any more children or teachers to die or be seriously injured," they told the court.

Despite initiatives to improve safety on outdoor education trips - including taking advice from Education Outdoors New Zealand - Toki and Petera said they continued to be frustrated about health and safety at the school.

"We were looking for broader improvements … We don't feel that Karnin's death was only down to specific failings with health and safety relating to outdoor education," they said.

"We hope from the bottom of our hearts that the board and the new principal undertake and action a wholesale review in the very near future."

Tino's parents said trip organisers also needed to be aware of the effects of climate change and the more extreme weather that heralded.

In the past, it might have taken a full day of rain to flood Abbey Caves.

"But because last year was extremely rainy, the ground was already saturated. So less rainfall was required to flood the caves on any given day. We'd like workplaces to think about the effects of climate extremes - rain, rising sea levels, wind, fires, whatever - when they do health and safety risk assessments," they said.

"And if the safety of your work depends on weather forecasting, you need to factor in a much larger margin of error these days."

Toki and Petera said the Whangārei District Council had previously put up warning signs at the caves, but that was not enough.

They wanted the caves closed to the public or at least restricted, for example, to guided tours in fine weather only.

The council told RNZ the caves remained closed and no decision had been made as to when, or if, they would reopen to the public.

A rāhui on the caves by Ngāti Kahu o Torongare also remained in place.

Following the sentencing, Whangārei Boys' High principal Karen Smith acknowledged planning and risk mitigation in the lead-up to the trip was insufficient to keep the group safe.

"The result of that failure was that Karnin lost his life … and the other students, our staff member and another adult helper have been profoundly impacted," she said.

Since then, Smith said the school had developed and implemented new outdoor education policies and procedures.

That had followed a "full and robust review" by Education Outdoors New Zealand (EONZ), which also resulted in a new safety management plan for future trips.

"We also contracted EONZ to undertake training in our school, including with all key staff decision makers and board representatives. The school is committed to continuing to fully review and reflect on all aspects of these programmes," Smith said.

EONZ chief executive Fiona McDonald said her organisation was pushing for all schools to review their EOTC safety systems to make sure they were using current good practice.

Many schools were already doing that in the wake of the Abbey Caves tragedy, she said.

McDonald said EONZ could provide bespoke support to schools, as it had for Whangārei Boys' High.

WorkSafe inspectorate head Rob Pope said outdoor education was crucial for giving students real-world learning experiences.

"However, there must be gold-standard risk management whenever schools take rangatahi into the great outdoors. This drowning should be a moment for every school board in the country to ensure its oversight of outdoor education is robust - and if you're at all unsure, get an expert involved," he said.