YOUR LOCAL NEWS ‘Deep sadness for our beautiful boy’
wrote Cuddy, who gave Stuff mission to quote her.
‘‘Police, fire crew, search and rescue, medical crew and so much more. We all felt so supported and cared for throughout the entire process. Your tireless efforts and aroha will be with us forever.’’
Stuff previously revealed that the group caught up in the floodwaters were meant to be rock climbing but bad weather had forced the trip underground instead.
In an email sent to parents on Friday, May 5, the school’s head of outdoor education, Stevie Huurnink, said that due to ‘‘forecasted rain’’ they had to modify ‘‘planned trips’’.
Whangārei Boys’ High School principal Karen Gilbert-Smith has thus far refused to answer questions about the death.
This is the second time in a matter of months the school has been subject to an inquiry from WorkSafe, after a teacher was harmed by ‘‘unguarded machinery’’ in March.
WorkSafe has verified the visit saying orders were given to the school, which pledged it would do better.
‘‘WorkSafe issued a directive letter to the school, requiring safe operating procedures to be put in place for the machinery,’’ a spokesperson told Stuff. ‘‘The school committed to make the perimprovements,’’ person said.
‘‘A directive letter is used in situations where the risk or compliance gap is relatively low, and/ or where the inspector has high confidence the organisation will voluntarily make the required improvements.
‘‘In this case, our involvement ended with the directive letter.’’
The school has been approached for comment.
The investigation into what occurred in the Abbey Caves tragedy will be robust and thorough, said Northland District Commander, Superintendent Tony Hill.
Police, working on behalf of the coroner, and WorkSafe will jointly investigate the incident the spokesbut are still at the early stages, he said. ‘‘We don’t want to put people through further stress than necessary – for many people these events will be hard to relive.’’
Investigators will allow the people involved to have a short time to grieve before they are questioned, Hill said.
He urged the public not to jump to conclusions about the incident or who was responsible, but to wait for the investigation to conclude.
Hill said a specialist caving team from Northland was involved in the search and recovery of Karnin last Tuesday.
Specialist equipment was also flown up from Auckland by police helicopter, enabling the recovery that Tuesday night.
On Thursday afternoon, Education Minister Jan Tinetti fielded questions about the death.
‘‘I want to take the time to support the family, principal, school, the young people involved. At the centre of this, we’ve got a beautiful young boy that didn’t come home, and never will again,’’ Tinetti said.
She expected answers around the circumstances of the death would begin to come this week.
‘‘While we don’t like these kinds of events, they’re often a time for us to take stock,’’ she said.
On Sunday, Karnin’s whānau osaid their final farewells to the 15-year-old.
Karnin’s tangihanga was held at Paa Te Oro Marae in Te Karae at 10am, where he was surrounded by family and friends.