Pool operator and Victorian education department hit with $180k fines over boy’s drowning death on school camp

A pool operator and the Victorian Education Department have been fined $180,000 after an eight-year-old boy drowned while on his first overnight school camp.

Year 2 pupil Cooper Oniet drowned on 21 May 2021 at Belfast Aquatics in Port Fairy in of Victoria south west on a trip organized by Merrivale Primary School in Warrnambool.

The school had sent parents permission and medical forms before the trip, asking them how far their children could swim.

Get the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today

Cooper’s mother ticked a box confirming he was a novice swimmer with little or no experience in shallow water, prosecutor Duncan Chisholm told Victoria’s District Court in Warrnambool last week.

However, the school did not pass on the information about the swimming abilities of the students in the pool before sending 28 young students there.

Grade 2 students were asked to raise their hands if they could swim when they got to the aquatic center, Chisholm said.

Children who said they could swim were taken to an inflatable obstacle course in the deep end of the pool, but many were eventually identified as weak swimmers and helped to the shallow end, he said.

Cooper was among the children identified as a weak swimmer and was spotted two more times outside the shallows – jumping into the deep end and onto the inflatable boat he was told to get off.

A swimmer who was with his daughter later saw the boy floating underwater and initially thought he was holding his breath.

“After about 40 seconds, she knew something was wrong,” Chisholm said.

Cooper died after unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him in the pool.

On Friday, Port Fairy Community Pool Management Group Inc and the Department of Education were sentenced in the Warrnambool District Court after earlier pleading guilty to breaching health and safety legislation in relation to Cooper’s death.

The pool operator was fined $80,000 and the department was fined $100,000

“If information about the children’s swimming abilities had been communicated to Belfast, it could have helped the risk of drowning,” Chisholm previously told the court.

The court heard on Friday that the pool failed to provide lifeguards with the information and procedures for using the inflatable and the education department should have reduced the risk of drowning to less experienced swimmers by telling the pool about the child’s ability level.

“It is difficult to understand how young children can be allowed to use an obstacle course in the deep end of a pool without first taking real steps to objectively assess their swimming ability,” said WorkSafe Health and Safety Executive Director Narelle Beer .

“Families also trust education providers to look after their children, it’s not enough for parents to tick a box on a form, schools need to use that information for what it’s intended to do – to help keep children safe.”

“These failures have tragically led to every parent’s worst nightmare and our hearts go out to Cooper’s family and loved ones who never had to face such a terrible loss.”

– With AAP