Principal keeps Banksia school open to support grieving community
The NSW government made an offer to Banksia Road Public School principal Hamish Woudsma to close the school but he decided it should stay open to support its grieving community.
NSW
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SHOCKED teachers today returned to Banksia Road Public School to comfort and support about 90 brave students who attended today, still grieving two Year 3 students killed after a SUV ploughed into their classroom yesterday.
None of the children from the classroom where the accident occurred attended school today, with parents at the school saying they would return next week.
The NSW government made an offer to Banksia Road Public School principal Hamish Woudsma to close the school but he decided it should stay open to support the community.
Education Minister Rob Stokes said that of about 570 students at the school 88 returned today.
“What I think is truly remarkable is that of 54 staff only one is absent from duty today. I think that statistic powerfully indicates the passion and the commitment that these teachers have to the students and the parents — it is their job to serve at Banksia Road Public School,” he said.
“I can see no greater example of the love and commitment those teachers have for their students that despite the grief and loss they are going through today that they have tuned up to serve,” he said.
Education Secretary Mark Scott yesterday wrote to 2200 schools around the state pledging the department’s full support for the Banksai Road community in its grief.
He said the 37 additional staff brought in would support the principal and teachers, provide counselling services, keep the school running and enable staff to attend funerals and grieve.
“Whatever the school needs to create the best possible environment for students and staff will be made available, “ he said.
“It had been the most devastating day at this wonderful school. What started out as a happy spring morning turned to devastation and then terrible sadness with news of the loss of two Year 3 boys,” Mr Scott said.
“In the face of the sudden and shocking destruction our colleagues were magnificent tending to the injured, caring for distraught children, looking after anxious parents.
“We could not have asked more of them and in a moment of great need they provided remarkable care and service to their students and the community.”
In other developments it has been confirmed that asbestos was present in the badly damaged classroom but it was later declared safe with no asbestos particles registered in the air.
While the damaged classroom dating back to the 1960s was of flimsy wooden construction, experts said a brick building also would have been dangerously damaged in the accident because the roof almost certainly would have collapsed.
A demountable would have been shunted off its footings, they said.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph a ban on car parking for staff in government schools was unlikely and a mass program of installing safety bollards was deemed to be impractical and unnecessary.
Rakel Nour picked up her children at the end of the school day, saying “it’s really sad”.
Schoolgirl Zana Karim also said she felt sad today.
“It was very scary. We heard a big bang and thought it was three people from the constitution site but it wasn’t. It was an accident.”
“One girl ran out covered in blood. She went to hospital. I lay down a rose.”
During the day, hundreds of schoolchildren and grieving community members also came to the gates of Banksia Public, laying tribute notes and flowers in memory of the two little boys.
“To the parents of the angels …, may god give you the patience in this difficult time. RIP,” one note read.
“In memory of your beautiful boys, sending you our sympathy and support, from the whole school community,” said another.
“Rest in peace. A good heart has stopped beating, a good soul ascended to heaven. Nah god bless and comfort your family during this time of grief. Love from 4K.”
Two eight-year-old boys took the brunt of the impact when an SUV ploughed into their classroom, in Greenacre in Sydney’s west. One was knocked unconscious and became stuck under the vehicle. Three other girls were seriously injured.
Police last night charged the driver Maha Al-Shennag — a widowed mother-of-four — with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and negligent driving after she released from custody yesterday afternoon.
She is due to front Bankstown Local Court on November 29.
Al-Shennag’s lawyer Nick Hanna said she was “deeply sorry for the loss and hurt suffered by the children, the school, the families and the community”.
“Her thoughts and prayers are with all those affected,” he said.
The Daily Telegraph understands police will allege the fatal crash was a tragic accident and it is not believed Ms Al-Shennag was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Parents and children returned to Banksia Road Public School this morning, still uncertain of whether classes would resume in light of the tragedy and safety concerns.
As staff and students are supported by counsellors at the school, it has been revealed the building the car ploughed into was recently cleared in a maintenance check.
Education bosses have indicated they will await the findings of a coronial inquiry into the incident before deciding if safety at the school and others across NSW needs to be improved.
Questions are being raised about why the school did not have a defibrillator and whether the carpark should have been situated further away from the wall of the classroom.
NSW Department of Education today confirmed the school did not have a defibrillator on site.
“Schools are considered to be an unusual location for cardiac arrest and as such the NSW Department of Education provides schools with guidelines on identifying risk, acquiring and managing a defibrillator,” a spokesman said.
Only 200 public schools in NSW have a defibrillator, but schools can opt have one if they identify there is a serious risk of cardiac arrests.
The school was reopened today to help the community heal, with all of the school’s 54 teachers — except one — returning today.
Year 5 student Eman Saeed returned to school today, which her mother Beenish Saeed said was her choice.
“She wanted to come back today, but she’s very sad,” Ms Saeed said.
“I heard the bang and I thought it was because there’s construction next door, but I saw some of the teachers running around and realised it was something bad,” Eman said.
For dozens of parents, Melbourne Cup Day 2017 will always be remembered with unmitigated horror — the day their lives were forever impact by the out-of-control 2000kg SUV crashing into their classroom.
The heartbreaking last words of one of the victims were “I want my mum”.
Lessons had not long begun in the Year 3 class at Banksia Road Public School when the careening Toyota Kluger, with 52-year-old Ms Al-Shennag allegedly at the wheel, smashed through the flimsy weatherboard walls of the 1960s classroom just before 10am.
The impact flung many children sideways and scattered their desks, chairs, books and papers.
► He was screaming: “I want my mum”
► Driver charged after tragedy
Hearing screams from the school, two tradesmen and another student’s father rushed to free a trapped eight-year-old boy by lifting the vehicle. The other boy lay awake on the ground nearby with a large head wound.
“He was saying ‘I want my mum’. She wouldn’t have got to see him before he died,” said dad Khaled Arnaout.
Three other girls suffered serious injuries. Two have been released from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead this afternoon.
Their classmates were also clearly traumatised.
“The car crashed into the room … I saw one of my friends faint … I started crying,” said one boy.
Another said the victims were “really nice kids ... he used to help me in class sometimes”.
Year 4 student Remas Shebhavalvem, 9, was visibly upset when she came out of the school. She was told her friend in Year 3 had a broken leg.
“I heard a bang in the classroom and we thought it was nothing. But then the teachers came and screamed at us to leave everything,” she said.
“I was super scared and I saw that one of my friends had not come out.”
While the cause of the accident was not immediately clear, the car had been driven in the car park at the rear of the school after the school gates had been opened at 9.30am.
A large sign at the carpark specifies it is for “staff and authorised vehicles only”.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said the “horrific incident” was not being treated as intentional.
Forensics staff will “methodically” pour over the vehicle to map its movements, to reveal why it moved forward into the classroom.
Education Minister Rob Stokes said the building where the boys died was cleared in a regular maintenance inspection earlier this year.
“No structural issues were identified,” he said.
Shadow education spokesman Jihad Dib spoke this morning of the deep impact of the crash on the community.
“We need to stand together and support. It’s not something that just cuts the local community, but anyone that’s a parent or anyone that’s known a child,” Mr Dib said outside the school this morning.
“It’s completely unimaginable and absolutely devastating.”
HERO DAD HAUNTED BY SHEER CARNAGE
A FATHER who was with two tradesmen desperately trying to save the lives of the two eight-year-old boys who died in yesterday’s schoolroom horror says he will never forget the pools of children’s blood or the frantic calls for help.
Just before 10am the men heard a crunch, then hysterical screams. Then they ran.
When they got to the Year 3 class at Banksia Road Public School, one eight-year-old boy was unconscious and stuck under the 4WD, which had just crashed through the side of their classroom.
“Three of us lifted it and one of the blokes grabbed him out from underneath,” Khaled Arnaout, who daughter attends school, said.
He said could not wipe from his mind the image of the child’s head under the car.
Another boy, also aged eight, with a severe head wound, lay nearby screaming for his mother.
“He was saying ‘I want my mum’. She wouldn’t have got to see him before he died,” the father said. “He had a big gash in his head.”
The men rushed the children to the school’s first aid room where they tried CPR for 10 minutes until paramedics arrived.
Mr Arnaout said the driver of the vehicle had allegedly climbed into the back in a sobbing panic.
“The driver was in the back seat, I don’t know how she got there, and she was just screaming,” one man said.
“She was screaming ‘help me, help me’.”
He said the school lacked the right first aid equipment, including a defibrillator.
“They had nothing,” he said.
TEARS FLOW AS HUNDREDS FLOCK TO VIGIL
HUNDREDS of Greenacre residents spilt out on to Banksia Rd last night to mourn the two boys and children injured in the classroom tragedy which struck the school just 12 hours earlier.
Jad, 10, a Year 5 student at the vigil, said he would miss his two friends.
“We used to play all the time,” he said.
The youngster also said he and his schoolmates were amazed at the response from the community.
“I’m very sad, but happy all of these people turned up.”
Fatima, 32, from Bankstown, said her children had wanted to come over and pay respects because “it could have been them”.
“You expect to drop off your kids at school and then pick them back up,” she said.
Lakemba MP Jihad Dib, a former school principal at nearby Punchbowl, oversaw a moment of silence at the gathering before an impassioned speech about love and perseverance.
“Please keep these two little boys and their family in your prayers and God willing a speedy recovery to those in hospital,” he said.
“Make sure you tell your parents you love them.”
ASBESTOS THREAT IN SCHOOL’S DISASTER
THE fatal school car crash at Greenacre has also left dozens of children at risk of asbestos poisoning with the ageing weatherboard building containing the deadly fibres.
NSW Education confirmed “asbestos-containing materials have been identified inside the building” at Banksia Road Public School.
Two dozen children aged between seven and 11 and a female teacher were inside the building when the Toyota Kluger ploughed into the 1960s wooden building yesterday.
An Education Department spokesman declined to say whether there had been previously safety complaints about the building.
“The removal of any asbestos that may have been disturbed in the damaged building will be managed in compliance with SafeWork NSW requirements,” he said.
“The Department’s first priority is to the students and staff of Banksia Road Public School, and we are currently focused on supporting them.”
Airborne asbestos fibres can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma. The removal of loose asbestos must be carried out by licensed operators.