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The company responsible for a high ropes course that left a 14-year-old schoolboy with critical neck injuries maintains the incident had "nothing to do with the misuse or failure of any safety equipment, instructional or participant error".
Year 9 student Connor Petterson remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital after being injured in a high ropes course at Woodford, north of Brisbane yesterday.
It is believed Connor from Brisbane's Marist College, became entangled and suffered neck and facial injuries while on a school camp activity at Adventure Alternatives Education Centre.
The boy was flown by rescue helicopter to the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane, with his parents at his bedside.
Students are being offered counselling today.
In a statement, Adventure Alternatives Managing Director Todd Samorowski said it was an "unforeseen incident".
School representatives will visit the Adventure Alternatives Education Centre to find out exactly how the incident occurred.
In an email to parents yesterday, Marist College headmaster Peter McLoughlin said the boy's parents were with him at the hospital.
"The boys have been informed of the accident on site and it is our intention to provide a debrief and counselling support at school [Thursday] morning," he wrote.
"Prayer and support spaces will be made available for your sons should they need."
Mr McLoughlin emailed parents and guardians of the school again this morning.
"The Year 9 boy remains in hospital and is receiving the best of care," he said.
"Prayers for the boy and his family would be greatly appreciated."
The remainder of the camp was cancelled and the boys were brought home on buses Wednesday night.
Workplace health and safety staff have attended the scene of the incident and an investigation is underway.
The operators of the Adventure Alternatives were not commenting.
'There's been an accident': Parent gets text
ABC Radio presenter John Scott said his son was at the camp, but was doing a different climbing activity when the accident happened.
"They were actually well away from it and were having lunch when the chopper came in and they didn't even associate it with the camp," Mr Scott said.
He said the boys were asked to go to base camp where they were told there had been an accident on the high ropes, and the school would be abandoning the camp.
Mr Scott said his son had been contemplating the ropes but he was relieved he decided to do the climbing instead.
"I was in the bank and I got a text saying: 'there's been an accident — camp's been abandoned, pick up your son this afternoon'," he said.
Mr Scott said other than the text he had not received any official information about the accident from the school, but despite that he felt Marist College had handled the incident well.
"The kids were told don't start any rumours," he said.
"It's a very sad thing but the school has done the best they can by the kids — that's my observation.
"They told them exactly what had happened and that the boy was getting the best care he could be."
Mr Scott said his son was a good friend of the injured teenager, but seemed to be handling it as well as could be expected.
"Kids in his group — each kid handles it differently — he was a bit upset by it," he said.
"He's sad for the kid, but he's going off [to school] today — they're doing counselling."
'Absolute tragedy'
A principal whose Year 8 students returned from the outdoor camp just weeks ago said it was "too early to tell" whether his school would return to the facility.
Immanuel Lutheran College principal Colin Minke said its students had only reported having a great time at the camps held at Woodford since it began sending students three years ago.
"We've had nothing but positive feedback from those experiences," Mr Minke said.
He said the college also operated its own outdoor facility at Blackbutt, 150 kilometres north-west of Brisbane.
Mr Minke said the incident at Woodford was an "absolute tragedy".
"I can understand how impactful that would be on families, particularly the young person's family," he said.
"I understand the young person is still in a critical condition so my thoughts and prayers go out to them.
"Of course it's one of those things that will have a profound effect not only on the family, but the organisation and the school."
Mr Minke said no decisions would be made yet on whether students would visit the camp again.
"We have to allow Worksafe Queensland to do their work and there will be a full investigation undoubtedly and it will go through the system," he said.
Topics: emergency-incidents, disasters-and-accidents, accidents---other, accidents, woodford-4514, brisbane-4000, ashgrove-4060, qld, australia, maroochydore-4558
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