Dead boy could not swim

By DARREL MAGER and NZPA

Police will investigate the death of two boys at a school camp on the Coromandel Peninsula after revelations that one of them could not swim.

The second victim, 11-year-old Revan Naidoo, died in hospital early yesterday after being pulled unconscious from a swimming hole in the Kauaeranga River near Thames on Monday night.

The body of his classmate, Joshua McNaught, was found just metres away an hour later when teachers carried out a second head-count and discovered that he was missing.

Joshua's mother, Kirsten McNaught, said her son could barely swim and should not have been allowed near deep water.

Margaret Thompson, a great-aunt who took Joshua to a local Howick pool for swimming lessons over Christmas, said: "He was confident in the water if he could touch the bottom, but he'd never been above his head before.

"At the swimming lessons it was just him - a big 11-year-old - and a bunch of little kids, and he didn't get out of the lifejacket the whole time."

The boys were on a camp organised by Howick Intermediate School and were among a group of 18 children supervised by seven adults at the river.

Police had earlier said that they had no criticism of teachers and parents over the tragedy, but Acting Senior Sergeant Del Read, of Thames, said revelations that Joshua could not swim raised an "important factor that must be further looked into."

"It could be that he should not have been let anywhere near that area, and it's possible that a coroner's hearing will have some criticism of the level of supervision."

Howick Intermediate's principal, John McAleese, said the school was aware that Joshua could not swim and that he had been told not to.

"Learner swimmers are confined to water which is only just above their ankles. [Joshua] was initially on the side of the bank. He had been instructed not to swim and it looks like he may have got in of his own accord."

Mr McAleese said the school was going back through "all the procedures, all the strategies and all the policies that we have in place to see whether there was anything that we ought to have done that would have prevented this."

At the school yesterday, the flag flew at half-mast as students, teachers and parents struggled to come to grips with the loss of the boys.

Grief counsellors were waiting to meet a bus containing two classes who returned from a separate Thames camp yesterday afternoon.

The body of Revan Naidoo will be taken back to South Africa for burial.

He was rushed to the Starship hospital in the WestpacTrust rescue helicopter and was taken off life support after doctors said there was no hope.

His parents, who have not lived in New Zealand long, were too upset to talk yesterday.

Mr McAleese said the boys were both in form one and had been at the 700-pupil school only a few weeks.

He did not personally know them but understood both were enjoying what was an exciting time in their lives and were settling in well.

It had been suggested the boys drowned after banging their heads together. However, Mr McAleese said there had been no further information on what caused the tragedy.

"It is just speculation about what might have happened and, as police have said and as medical staff have said, 'We might never know'."

Mr McAleese said the boys' deaths were "affecting different students and different staff and different parents in different ways."

"Some are obviously very upset and distressed.

"The counselling staff and the trauma support people we've had available have been extensively used over the past two days."

Fifteen other classes were scheduled to go on Kauaeranga Valley camps in coming weeks, but the school would meet parents before deciding whether those camps would go ahead, he said A WaterSafe Auckland spokeswoman, Bronwyn Coers, who met a dozen Auckland principals yesterday, said many schools were on edge in the wake of the tragedy as they prepared for their own summer camps.

"They're now stopping and double checking that they've done all the homework required."

She will meet 80 Auckland principals next Thursday to discuss setting up comprehensive water supervision systems for schools.