Questions and tears over death at camp

By THERESA GARNER and PAUL YANDALL

Toddler Liam McNaught pads around the lounge exclaiming happily over photos of his big brother, Joshua, that are propped up against the furniture.

His mother, Kirsten McNaught, slumps in an armchair, bleakly watching him. "How am I going to explain this to him?" she asks. "His brother was his whole world."

The 29-year-old Howick woman turns to one of the portraits and her eyes, filled with tears, lock into those of her 11-year-old son, who drowned on a Howick Intermediate School camp on Monday night.

"He was so generous and loving. If I gave him some pocket money, he'd take it and go and buy me some flowers."

Kirsten McNaught still does not know why Joshua disappeared in a swimming hole at the Kauaeranga Valley campsite, or why a head count failed to reveal he was missing.

But she wants answers and is concerned about the standard of care. "You have to question the supervision, and their abilities. Maybe they should have more trained people instead of just parents, especially around water."

A second boy was on life support in the Starship children's hospital, after being pulled from the water unconscious. His relatives were keeping a bedside vigil last night.

The Hauraki-Coromandel ambulance service operations manager, Dennis Dixon, said camp supervisors had done extremely well to revive the boy, who was plucked from the water with no pulse.

Hospital staff said last night that the unnamed 11-year-old was still critically ill on life support after spending five minutes underwater on Monday evening. Rescuers had been unaware Joshua was lying just metres away.

A head count accounted for all the children, but a second one an hour later showed Joshua was missing.

The director of the Kauaeranga Valley Christian Camp, Michael Popping, suggested teachers miscounted because of the number of neighbourhood children at the waterhole at the time.

"I think the first count, with everyone here, people around, was a bit of a panic."

School principal John McAleese said it might not have mattered.

"It appears that Josh was already under the water prior to the other boy going under the water, so even if there had not been that issue of the head count it is still evident the outcome would have been the same."

Five adults had been at the waterhole supervising 18 children from the camp.

Mr McAleese said the school had risk management policies in place. "I understand that before going into the water the teachers had been down there and talked through all the safety issues with the children."

Sergeant Jim Corbett of Thames could not confirm whether the boys had banged heads as they jumped into the water. "There is a possibility that they may have been playing a game of holding their breath," he said.

"It's too early to say what happened."

He had no criticism of the teachers or parents, and hoped the tragedy did not put parents off sending their children to camp.

Joshua's funeral takes place tomorrow. He will be dressed in his Siu Lumgar kung fu outfit. His coffin will contain the $5 he earned from mowing his grandmother's lawn for the first time just days ago, and his treasured Pokemon trading cards.

Boy-band Westlife will be on the CD player.

Kirsten McNaught said: "He loved his music, and can sing it word for word. I reckon he could have ended up being a singer."

The tragedy is the second school-related drowning incident in five days. Last Thursday, Waimate High School pupils Glenn Jopson, aged 14, and Hamish Neal, 15, drowned in a Waihao River swimming spot known as the Black Hole, near the South Canterbury town.