Karnin Petera, whose nickname was Tino, died during a school caving trip.
Karnin Petera, whose nickname was Tino, died during a school caving trip.
Karnin Petera, 15, died on a caving excursion with Whangārei Boys’ High.
Northland was under a severe heavy rain warning at the time.
Staff say they were watching the rain radar and believed heavy rain was due later in the day.
The school Board of Trustees was charged and paid more than $500,000 reparation.
The inquest is being conducted before Coroner Alexander Ho at the Whangārei District Court.
Only two adults accompanied 17 students on a fatal Whāngarei caving trip - one of them an assistant who had no role in planning the trip and was never briefed on safety policies.
As the coroner’s inquiry into the death of Karnin Petera draws toa close, scrutiny has tightened around those charged with keeping the children safe, and the safety obligations that were overlooked, ignored, or never established in the first place.
The 15-year-old’s death on May 9, 2023, has been the focus of the inquest after a class from Whangārei Boys High entered Abbey Caves during a severe weather warning.
Northland had been under an orange weather warning for days and it was upgraded to a heavy‑rain warning the night before the trip.
Shortly after they entered, the group got into trouble and Karnin lost his life after being sucked into rapidly rising water.
The trip was organised by two staff members and supported by an assistant who was not an employee of the school.
Both staff members have given evidence they were watching the rain radar and did not believe an orange warning was enough to cancel a trip, nor was it school policy.
Staff to student ratio concerns
They both also gave evidence they had raised concerns around the ratios of staff to students on previous occasions with school leadership but nothing was done.
In relation to the caves trip, forms were sent to management marking a risk of the trip was drowning, but there was no emergency plan put in place, or response from a senior leader, to acknowledge the risk.
They said they did not feel supported by their management with one saying, he had never had any meetings with his line manager the entire time he was employed.
That leadership member has never made a statement to WorkSafe and was not called to give evidence at the inquiry.
The assistant who was brought on for the trip, was not involved in any of the planning or given any information in regard to the school’s health and safety policies.
The first Whangārei Boys High School trip to Abbey Caves, held the previous day, had gone ahead without incident, led by one teacher and the assistant.
When he arrived at the school, he was surprised to see the students ready to go and said he was not told the trip had been moved forward by 30 minutes.
When asked whether he raised the trip should not go ahead he said he did not.
‘Tail end Charlie’
Once at the entrance of Organ Cave, he noticed the water was muddy and slightly higher.
It took 10 hours to locate the body of Karnin Petera at Abbey Caves. Photo / NZME
His role was “tail end Charlie” in charge of the students in the back and as they moved through the caves, he noticed the water was about 20cm higher than the previous day.
He said he was still not concerned as he believed heavy rain was due later that day.
He said that when the teacher decided at “the squeeze,” about 200m into the cave, to turn the group back, there was no discussion with him.
When asked if he agreed with the decision, he said he did.
“I thought there was too much uncertainty whether the high points would remain safe and dry.”
He said the students were already in the water, following the teacher, when he began to consider retreating to the higher point where they had earlier been watching glow worms.
“It was straight behind me and I was considering it before I got into the water,” he said.
“I felt an obligation to assist the students near the back of the group who had already got into the water. So I decided to enter as well.”
When he came around the corner near the exit point he saw the students struggling to get around a boulder as the water had created a churn system known as a “sieve”.
He made a decision to leave the tail end and shimmied along rocks to help the teacher and at one point, fell back into the water.
When he managed to get out, he began pulling students out of the water.
“I came to the conclusion that if anyone had got trapped in the sieve, they would of been sucked down into the water with little, to no chance, of being able to survive.”
He said he could not recall which student Karnin was as he had only met them that day.
The school's board of trustees was charged by Worksafe and ordered to may more than $500,000 reparation. Photo / Denise Piper
When he did the headcount, he initially got the number wrong but within a minute realised they were missing one student.
“This was a harrowing experience. I believe we did the best we could .... that said I wish the trip had not gone ahead and Karnin was still with us today.”
‘I have never been asked my thoughts’
The man said he believed the teacher in charge was a hero and had saved several students from drowning but criticised the school.
“Whangārei Boys’ High School has never issued an apology to me,” he said.
“I’ve never been asked my thoughts on what lessons could be learned or changes or that these are my recommendations.”
He said there should be written agreements between the school and assistants defining their roles and safety risks.
“What happens when an assistant instructor is reluctant to follow the lead instructor’s decision making? Should it be that the path of least risk should be followed?”
A former board of trustees member gave evidence the school had accepted they failed specifically around the obligations of the role of a more senior leader who has since left.
“Part of the role is to ensure processes are in place. He was empowered to challenge the people but wasn’t necessarily across everything,” the board member said.
The board member said the role was intended to be the board’s first line of oversight, and they were unaware he had adopted a “hands‑off” approach.
“The board fell down. [Suppressed] was not properly discharging his duties. That’s part of what the school plead to.”
When he was asked whether staff were offered training in health and safety, or weather reading, he said they were “self-directed”.
“The school didn’t provide training, the school didn’t prescribe it but made it available in provisional learning definitely. It was a self-management process,” he said.
He agreed that at the time, there were no clear guidelines in place around weather cancellations and the school relied on staff to make decisions based on their own experiences.
He said following the incident, the board was concerned with significant issues in the running of that department and has since implemented safety processes.
All of the staff members involved with the incident, including former principal Karen Smith, have left the school.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
