LATROBE High School vice- principal Brent Armitstead has admitted an excursion to Bells Parade where a student drowned should have been better organised and controlled.
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And three teachers and a student teacher have agreed that the activities day turned to chaos when rain set in.
Mr Armistead told the inquest into the death of 15-year-old Rene Levi in November 2009 that there should have been a roll-call, a head count of students who were swimming and a clear delegation of who would supervise the water area.
The class had left the scene by 12.30pm that day but staff did not know he was missing until several hours later.
The inquest also learnt that one of the teachers had only been employed at the school for three or four months, when she took over another teacher's class. Two more were relief teachers, and the third was a student teacher who had been on placement at Latrobe High for less than two weeks.
Rebecca Clarke and Stephanie Jackson formerly had lifesaving qualifications but had let them expire, while Alexander Baldock, the student teacher, had qualifications but the senior teacher did not know about them.
That left one teacher who had been there full-time and with qualifications - Tim Jolly - who is expected to give evidence today.
The inquest was told four grade 9 classes combined and went to Bells Parade that day, with the option of swimming or participating in land- based activities.
It was established earlier this week that four boys out of between 60 and 80 students chose to swim, one of them being Rene, who was in Ms Jackson's class.
She told the court yesterday that she found Rene's shoes under a bench near the river when they were about to leave but students told her he had gotten out and gone back to school. "I had a quick look at the river but I didn't think he would still be in the water," she said.
Ms Jackson took the shoes back to school and left them at the office, she told the inquest.
The three teachers who gave evidence yesterday said no roll-call was taken at Bells Parade, there was no head count of students getting in and out of the river and they assumed Mr Jolly was in charge of water supervision but nothing was vocally established about it. Mr Armitstead put the responsibility on all staff involved, including the four teachers who took the excursion, himself and the principal when asked why there was no written risk assessment document.
"We've put in measures now," he said. He told the inquest that the school had not taken any classes back to the river since the tragic event in 2009.
He said if the day could be managed again, there would have been safety instructions before students left the school, adequate supervision of water and land, a head count and a roll-call before the class left.