Compo denied for woman detained by mistake

Families from overseas countries living in Levin have scrambled to get their children back to school after a measles outbreak at two Horowhenua schools.

Students hailing from South Africa, the United Kingdom and Pakistan have returned to school, after two cases of measles were confirmed at Levin Intermediate and Waiopehu College last week.

The schools, which were closed on Friday after MidCentral District Health Board confirmed the cases, reopened to vaccinated students and staff yesterday.

Mother Susie Procter, whose two children grew up in Pakistan, scrambled to gather the necessary documents to ensure they could return to Waiopehu College yesterday.

She said her children, in year 10 and 11, received texts about the news, so she set about getting the records from Lahore.

‘‘I actually handed them in at 8am on Friday, the time difference worked well,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s an inconvenience to everybody but the reality is that measles is a killer.’’

Procter said the level of communication coming from the school was impressive.

Principal Mark Robinson said there were quite a few stories of people getting their vaccination records from overseas, including his own daughter’s.

Hailing from Britain, he managed to obtain her records in time. ‘‘There’s been some remarkable stories around that,’’ he said.

Despite some long distances, more than half the students had returned to school yesterday, with about 260 students still at home.

‘‘We’ve had a really good weekend and had about 45 [records] today.’’

Not many people had said they would not vaccinate their children.

Robinson said decisions for the cancellation of sporting events would be made case by case, depending on people’s availability.

The majority of the college’s stage challenge troop would dance on, competing in the regional competition today.

Eighty per cent of the kids would dance, as the others were unable to produce their vaccination records.

Given the amount of time invested into the challenge, it was a ‘‘really hard decision to make’’.

Robinson said there had also been constant communication with Levin Intermediate, following similar processes. ‘‘Levin’s a pretty small town, we’re often talking about the same families.’’

Levin Intermediate declined to comment.

The MidCentral’s Public Health Service had called staff and students over the weekend but was unable to contact everyone.

MidCentral medical officer of health Dr Rob Weir said the public health service had been collating vaccination information for staff and pupils of both schools since Friday. There have been no additional cases since then.

From those records, 86 per cent of people have records showing they are fully vaccinated.

‘‘Measles is highly infectious. Being fully up to date with the MMR vaccine is the best method of prevention.’’ The Court of Appeal has denied compensation to a woman who was detained because of a filekeeping error, but has left the door open for the Crown to make a goodwill payment to her.

Camille Iriana Thompson spent more than 15 hours in custody in July 2012 because of bungled court record-keeping. She had previously tried to claim $50,000 in compensation in 2014, but was denied by the High Court.

In a decision released yesterday, the Court of Appeal said the law did not allow Thompson the right to compensation, but did say the Crown could make a goodwill payment to her. ‘‘The consequence of this judgment is that Ms Thompson has no right to compensation in respect of the period for which she was unlawfully detained,’’ the decision read.

‘‘That seems unsatisfactory but, unless there is some basis on which the Crown would consider it appropriate to make an ex-gratia payment, we do not consider the law allows for compensation.’’

The mistake happened because one of Thompson’s files, for failing to finish a community work sentence, was dealt with earlier than planned. When the computer system was not updated, it led court staff to believe she had missed a court appearance and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

The records had not been updated by the time she was arrested on July 31, 2012. A staff member told the High Court the record should have been updated the day the case was in court.