School told to remove skylight after coroner's report on boy's death

School told to remove skylight after coroner's report on boy's death
Photo credit: Newshub

A Bay of Plenty school has been told to remove a skylight or make sure its replacement is made of a safer, non-breakable material, after the death of a 16-year-old boy. 

Hawiki Kiri-Te Amo died after falling at Opotiki College in October last year. 

At the time he fell, Hawiki had climbed onto the roof of the school's library with his cousin.

 

When the boys kicked a skylight on the roof it broke, and they fell eight metres to the concrete ground.

Hawiki landed first, with his cousin landing on top of him.

A coroner's report has found that Hawiki died from a traumatic head injury.

In his report, Coroner Gordon Matenga said the replacement skylight the school had installed was not compliant with rules set by the Ministry of Education, which state that roofing material should not be made of anything that could shatter or break if walked on.

He also expressed concern that the ministry itself seemed to have been involved in the school's decision.

"The ministry was a part of the decision and appears to have been in direct conflict with the ministry's own guidance," Coroner Matenga said in his report.

He also criticised the fact that the boys could gain access to the roof via a fire escape.

Opotiki College principal, Susan Impey, says Hawiki's death was a "tragic and traumatic accident".

"Although Kiri-Te-Amo was not a student at the college, we were very saddened by the accident and the loss of a young life," Impey told Newshub.

"Immediately after the incident we contacted the Ministry of Education and met with their personnel regarding remediation action.

"The school will continue to work with the Ministry of Education in relation to the coroner's recommendations regarding building materials for all skylights in the school."

Coroner Matenga concluded his report by saying that his findings be "distributed widely amongst all state funded schools, to make them aware of the dangers of translucent plastic sheeting".