A Victorian mother plans to take legal action against her son’s government school (School) after he died driving the School’s maintenance manager’s car. A 29-year-old female passenger also died. The mother contends that:
The School had paired the student with the maintenance manager as part of a plan to combat difficulties that the student was having at the School.
The student attended Student Support Group meetings at the School where concerns were raised regarding difficulties the student had with socialising with his peers, violence, untruthfulness, smoking and poor attendance.
In response to these concerns, the Assistant Principal arranged for the student to work with the maintenance manager on various maintenance tasks around the School. This was an accepted practice at the School for students who had difficulty actively engaging in and attending the School. The School obtained signed permission slips from the student’s grandparents, who were his legal guardians, to engage in the maintenance work once a week. The maintenance manager would report to the Assistant Principal regularly on the student’s progress. The Assistant Principal observed that the work arrangement had kept the student more engaged at school.
The fatal car accident occurred at 2:00 am on July 2010 in North Fitzroy. The student was driving a car belonging to the maintenance worker’s wife on his way home from the local sports club. The 29-year-old female passenger was in the front passenger seat at the time of the accident, suffered extensive injuries and was partially ejected from the vehicle due to the impact. She was pronounced deceased at the scene. The student suffered severe head injuries and was also pronounced deceased at the scene. The Coroner found that the student had a blood alcohol level of 0.02 at the time of the accident.
One of the student’s guardians told the Victorian Coroner’s Court that, six months after the student and the maintenance worker became ‘friends’, she realised that the employee was offering the student alcohol and that the two would drink in the employee’s car while he drove the student home after school. This behaviour continued up until the time of the student’s death, escalating to the point where other students at the School referred to the two as ‘drinking mates’.
The Victorian Deputy State Coroner in his report from the inquest into the death of the student concluded that these drinking activities, whether they occurred on or off school grounds, were totally inappropriate. He stated that the maintenance manager should have been aware of this, especially because he saw himself as being a ‘mentor’ to the student – a role the School did not ask or condone that he take on. The Deputy Coroner stated that ‘his conduct revealed a gross ignorance of what being a mentor entails’ and that he demonstrated ‘flawed judgment and an abuse of the role entrusted to him by the School’.
The mother of the student contends that the School failed to control or cease the toxic relationship between the maintenance manager and her son.
Upon first realising that their employee was supplying her 15-year-old son with alcohol both on and off School grounds, the student’s grandmother contacted the School about her concerns and had a meeting with the middle-year student wellbeing coordinator. The coordinator, after hearing the grandmother’s concerns, called the maintenance manager into the meeting, where he denied the allegations. Evidence given in Court revealed that the coordinator stated she had no reason to disbelieve the employee as nobody else had expressed similar concerns at that stage and as such, she did not report the matter to the Assistant Principal or the Principal. No formal record of the allegation was recorded.
Witness statements from various other students at the School indicate that there was a common knowledge amongst the student body that the two drank in the maintenance shed both during and after school. In late 2008, the student told his mother that he had been drinking at lunch with the employee in the maintenance shed and the mother made a report to the School directly to the Principal. The Principal denied ever receiving the phone call.
In relation to the School’s failure to address the complaints and concerns of the student’s grandmother and mother, the Deputy Coroner found that:
It is unclear what action the student’s mother plans to bring against the School. However, she told The Age that she was utterly disgusted with the way the School had handled concerns about the employee drinking alcohol with her son and that she was planning legal action as she feared that the employee could again influence a vulnerable teen who, like her son, yearned for a father figure.
It was settled by the Coroner’s Court, and accepted by the School’s leaders, that the relationship between the employee and the student was inappropriate. This was however something only realised after the fact – too late to prevent the employee’s influence from endangering the student’s life and others’. Neither the Education Department nor the School have commented on whether the maintenance manager is still employed at the School.
It is a condition of registration for all schools in Victoria that a complaints handling policy is created and implemented. All schools should also have a comprehensive policy relating to relationships between staff and students that mandates the maintenance of professional boundaries and prohibits inappropriate friendships or personal relationships between staff and students. It is also necessary for schools to train each member of staff in this policy, irrespective of the amount of contact they would normally have with students.