KEY POINTS:
A plaque is to be unveiled this morning at Strathmore School in Tokoroa in honour of teacher Lois Dear, who was murdered in her classroom a year ago today.
The plaque reads, "In memory of our beloved teacher", and has been placed on a rock collected from Waiomu Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula, where Ms Dear took her pupils for a school trip shortly before she died.
"We thought it would be appropriate there was some small plaque on the school grounds to recognise that we'd lost our teacher," Strathmore principal Murray Kendrick said yesterday.
Students will sing as the plaque is unveiled in a garden outside the new administration block. Readings and a blessing by a minister will also form a part of the ceremony.
The school gained permission to take the rock from Waiomu Bay to honour Ms Dear after she was bashed to death by Whetu Te Hiko as she prepared for the first day of a new term.
The murder shocked the country, particularly when the stark contrast between Ms Dear's dedication to her job and family and Te Hiko's brutality was revealed.
Te Hiko, then 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.
A High Court judge found there was a sexual element to the crime after Ms Dear's body was found with some of her clothing removed, although no sexual attack occurred.
Ms Dear, 66, had been a teacher since she left high school. She planned to retire on the Coromandel to be closer to her son and daughter and her grandchildren. She took her class to Waiomu Bay for a rock study and used to visit the bay with her family.
"You could always find crabs under the rocks," her son, Kevin McNeil, said. He praised the school for coming up with the rock tribute, saying it was a fitting memorial to his mother.
He and Ms Dear's daughter, Jan Armstrong, and their families will attend the unveiling. Mr McNeil said the days leading up to the first anniversary of his mother's death had been particularly difficult.
"You're always looking at the clock, especially a couple of days beforehand, and you're thinking, 'Oh God, she only had a couple of days to live'," he said.
Mr McNeil became a champion for victims' rights when he refused to tone down a victim impact statement he read at Te Hiko's sentencing.
Now he has teamed up with the Sensible Sentencing Trust to call for harsher penalties for violent offenders.
"If we could only get harsher deterrents to make these guys get the 'ouch factor', then they might think twice before they do these things."
