School’s costly lesson after play goes awry
An exclusive Auckland school has admitted two students suffered ‘‘life threatening’’ injuries when a school play went badly wrong.
On April 6 last year two Saint Kentigern College students suffered cuts to their throats on the opening night of the school’s Sweeney Todd production.
The student actors had been performing a scene involving a simulated throat-cutting when a prop razor blade actually sliced the boys’ necks, putting them in hospital.
WorkSafe New Zealand said the school had ‘‘entered into an enforceable undertaking agreement’’ over the ‘‘very serious injuries sustained’’.
Agreeing to the undertaking means Saint Kentigern College avoids prosecution over the inci- dent but it will cost the school at least $85,000.
In addition, Saint Kentigern’s board will make yet-to-be determined compensation payments to the boys, WorkSafe’s enforceable undertaking report said.
Deputy board of trustees chairman John Kernohan said the board ‘‘sincerely apologises for the fact that the accident happened and for the harm caused to all those families involved’’.
‘‘Saint Kentigern accepts that it should have done more to acknowledge the seriousness of what happened immediately after the accident. The injuries were not minor. The injuries were significant and life threatening.
‘‘Members of the trust board personally feel deep regret and take full responsibility for the emotional and physical harm that has been suffered by those students involved. Ensuring that all students can learn in a safe environment remains Saint Kentigern’s first priority,’’ Kernohan said.
The east Auckland private school was entering into a restorative justice process with the families, and would not comment further until this process is completed, he said.
In its enforceable undertaking report, WorkSafe said school board members met with parents of the injured students to ‘‘formally apologise’’ and to seek the affected families’ input on actions the school needed to take to make amends.
Restorative justice sessions would be held involving the school, the students and their families.
WorkSafe said its investigation found the board breached the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 by failing to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of students was not put at risk from work carried out as part of the business or undertaking.
WorkSafe alleged the school’s production breached the act in four ways: Not implementing a system to adequately identify hazards that could give rise to reasonably foreseeable risks to health and safety; not providing adequate control measures to eliminate or minimise the risks of sustaining injuries from razor blades used in the production; not establishing an effective incident and investigation reporting system for incidents arising out of the production; and not providing adequate training or instructions to students on the use of razor blades necessary to protect them from risks to their health and safety arising out of the production.
Saint Kentigern must produce a performing arts health and safety policy, implement the policy, hire external health and safety consultants, provide health and safety training workshops and offer those workshops and training materials to other New Zealand schools and community-based theatre and drama societies.