During a camping trip organized by a primary school in Warrnambool, an 8-year-old student named Cooper Onyett drowned at an aquatics center in Port Fairy on May 21, 2021.
The child was a weak swimmer. The school had known about his weak swimming abilities but failed to inform the aquatics center.
Before the trip, the school asked parents about their children’s swimming abilities.
The parents were then sent permission slips. On Cooper’s behalf, his mother ticked a box to confirm that he was a beginner at swimming.
Before the kids went to the pool, the school failed to inform the authorities about the students’ swimming abilities.
According to Mr. Chisholm, the children were asked to show their hands if they were capable of swimming. Those who said they were skilled at the water were then led to an obstacle course, but many of them were identified as weak swimmers.
As a group of children were being taught how to swim, Cooper was spotted outside the shallow part of the pool. He was then asked to get off the inflatable. A member of the group later saw the boy struggling in the water and believed he was unconscious.
Cooper died after the attempts to revive him failed. The education department of Victoria admitted that it breached safety legislation by failing to ensure that employees and other people were not exposed to risks.
During the court proceeding, Mr. Chisholm noted that if the school had told the Belfast about the students’ weak swimming skills, it could have helped prevent Cooper’s drowning. Throughout the hearing, the judge, Claire Quin, repeatedly asked Carmen Currie, the government’s lawyer, why the school was collecting information about the kids’ swimming abilities.
According to Ms Currie, the data was gathered for planning purposes. The department was not able to predict what information the providers might require during a particular activity. Judge Quin then noted that the activity was aquatics-related.
Mr. Chisholm noted that the school was not able to provide the necessary information to the authorities because it was not able to comply with its own legal obligation. He said the department relied on someone else to fulfill its obligation after it placed the onus on the aquatic center to gather data about the students’ swimming abilities.
The education department instructed schools to inform the pools about the swimming abilities of their pupils. Ms Currie noted that there was no proof that disclosing the details of the students’ skills would have affected how the Belfast Aquatics handled the activity on the day of the lesson. The Port Fairy community pool also admitted its violation of safety legislation.