Court hears more details of Cooper Onyett’s drowning

The Department of Education has pleaded guilty to failing to ensure persons were not exposed to risk before the tragic death of a child during a school excursion.

Cooper Onyett, 8, drowned at the Belfast Aquatics in Port Fairy. Picture: Facebook

A school failed to tell an aquatic centre which students could swim and which could not before an excursion where a primary school boy drowned, a court has heard.

The Department of Education pleaded guilty to a WorkSafe charge of “failing to ensure … persons were not exposed to risk”, after Merrivale Primary School student Cooper Onyett, 8, drowned at the Belfast Aquatics in Port Fairy in May 2021.

It comes as the swimming centre also reportedly pleaded guilty on Wednesday after being charged by WorkSafe.

On Thursday the Warrnambool County Court heard that the school asked parents to fill out a permission form outlining their children’s swimming abilities but did not pass this on to Belfast before the excursion.

Parents had been asked to fill out a permission form outlining their children’s swimming abilities prior to Cooper’s death.

It was revealed that Cooper’s mother Skye Meinen ticked the box on the form that her son had “little or no experience including in shallow water”.

Prosecutor Duncan Chisholm argued that the school “failed to provide information that would’ve reduced risk” on the day.

“That information was basic and was obviously relevant to the activity undertaken and in this case is something they had in their possession and obtained for the purpose of this activity,” he said.

An expert report provided by Andy Dennis from Lifesaving Victoria agreed that the information

“would have made it easy for all non- and weak swimmers to have been identified and

effectively supervised”.

Despite pleading guilty, the Department’s lawyer Carmen Currie argued that Belfast did not request details about students’ swimming levels and that the school “could not anticipate the information a provider may need to put an activity together.”

But Judge Clare Quin questioned why the school would ask parents to fill out the permission form if they did not intend to hand it to the swimming centre.

“Why get the information if you’re not giving it to anyone? That’s the real difficulty I have,” she said.

Ms Currie replied that the information was collected by the school for “planning purposes” to assess what activities would be suitable for the students when organising events.

She also submitted that Belfast did not test the students’ swimming skills on the day which could “not be overlooked” and was also outlined in the prosecution’s opening for plea.

Court documents revealed that a lifeguard asked the children how many knew how to swim and how many had had swimming lessons, before they were divided into two groups.

“Those children that could swim were allowed to go … to the inflatable, while those that could not swim, or did not wish to go on the inflatable, were to remain at the shallow end of the pool,” court documents say.

Moreover, court documents reveal that lifeguards “identified a number of children as weak swimmers” during the activity and escorted at least 12 students to the shallow pool area including Cooper.

The court heard that lifeguards then saw Cooper “on a further two occasions” jumping into the pool from the shallow end and then “standing on the pool’s dividing wall, which he (was) directed to get off”.

Cooper was discovered by a mother swimming at the deep end of the pool “floating underwater” before she called for help.

Ms Currie told the court that since Cooper’s death revisions have been made to policies that now require schools to assess swimming abilities before water activities are completed.

Both the Department and Belfast will be sentenced at a later date.