KEY POINTS:
The man who led a South Canterbury high school when two pupils died on a school trip is surprised to see the board he chaired now being sued.
Raymond Francis was chairman of the Waimate High School board of trustees when special-needs pupils Hamish Neal, 15, and Glenn
Jopson, 13, drowned seven years ago.
Glenn got into trouble at a swimming hole in South Canterbury's Waihao River and Hamish tried to help and was pulled down with him.
They were part of a group of 12 pupils from the school who went swimming under the supervision of a single teacher on February 10, 2000.
Hamish was later posthumously awarded the New Zealand Bravery Medal for his efforts to save his brain-damaged classmate.
Hamish's mother, Carol Neal, and Glenn's mother, Sharon Jopson, have now filed a civil claim in the Timaru District Court seeking $200,000 each in damages from the school's board. It is the maximum claim allowed under the court's jurisdiction.
Mr Francis, a Waimate justice of the peace, no longer serves on the board and said the claim was not something he ever expected.
"I didn't know anything about the case."
Although seven years had passed, the drownings were "not something which is easy to forget".
"Everyone on the board at the time was a parent and felt for the two women who lost their children. It was heart-wrenching."
A lawyer for the two mothers, David Moore, told the Herald: "The mothers consider the school was negligent in not providing better support for the teacher and better supervision."
The board is defending the claim. Lawyer Phillip James said its position was that the duty the school was accused of breaching was not breached.
A spokesperson for the mothers, who asked not to be named, said they had sought an apology and an admission of responsibility from the school, but had not received either.
"They don't wish this to happen this way. They don't really wish it on the community either."
A hearing was to have been held in the Timaru District Court yesterday, but has been delayed.
The present chairman of the trustees, Ken Buckingham, said the board's personnel had changed considerably since the drownings seven years ago, but everyone was well aware of what happened.
"[We] have just got to focus on today's students and leave it up to the lawyers to manage," Mr Buckingham said.
No criminal charges were laid after the tragedy and Waimate coroner Bernard MacGeorge did not blame the school for the deaths.