Responsible findings must be heeded

It is commonly said when legal proceedings come to a close that that is the end of the matter, or that some sort of closure has been achieved.

That will not be the case following the delivery earlier this week of the coronial findings into the death of Sophia Crestani.

Quite apart from anything else, her friends and family are still living with her death from crush asphyxia during a student party in Dunedin North in 2019.

A vibrant and effervescent University of Otago student, the 19-year-old had her life in front of her and enormous potential waiting to be fulfilled, before dying in circumstances which Coroner Heather McKenzie said on Tuesday were accidental but avoidable.

But the main reason why the Sophia Crestani story is not over is because of the determined efforts of her parents, Bede Crestani and Elspeth McMillan, that it will not be over.

Thanks in no small part to their efforts there now exists the Sophia Charter, an agreement between students, welfare groups, emergency services and the city created in an attempt to prevent similar circumstances to those which led to the death of Sophia Crestani from happening again.

The intent of the charter should interface effectively with many of the coroner’s recommendations, which included that students hosting large parties should take active steps to be responsible hosting, including registering their party and monitoring the number and the atmosphere on the night; that students leave parties or call authorities if they don't feel safe; that Campus Watch staff get new or regular refreshing training about assessing risk at large student parties; that party registrations include a trigger if they are over a certain size; and that a recommendation to lock bedroom doors at a party be rescinded.

Coroner McKenzie said that some of her recommendations might seem improbable or naive.

We agree: there is little hope of mandating that people in general and in particular young students enjoying their first taste of freedom, will always act in the reasonable and responsible way in which we might wish them too.

But we also agree with the coroner that they are the right recommendations to make, and that it is right to hope that they will be heeded.

Everyone has said the right thing in the wake of the coroner’s findings: the Otago University Students Association said it had a duty to improve its efforts to ensure student safety, and the University of Otago itself said that it would do more to uphold a safe and inclusive environment for students.

But vice-chancellor Grant Robertson is also correct that there is a tension between being well-intentioned and overstepping on the rights of students to live their lives free from interference.

The coronial recommendation that the university considers its approach to disciplining students after large events that breach its Code of Conduct is a fair one, but concern about future punishment is unlikely to deter anyone in the spur of the moment.

More immediately important is her recommendation that OUSA better integrate information about being safe at parties, the risks of intoxication and how to safely host parties into its student orientation and flatting resources.

While no-one has been held individually or collectively responsible for Sophia’s death, the coroner is correct that even before circumstances begin to spiral out of control, people need to take some personal responsibility for trying to ensure that they do not. Students should have fun during their time in Dunedin. That is what Sophia Crestani had planned to do on October 5 when she headed to a party at "The Manor".

It is a sorrowful tragedy that that was not the way that the evening ended.

But there is some hope that the ongoing work in implementing the coroner’s recommendations and continuing the good work under the auspices of the Sophia Charter will prevent further such unintended and avoidable deaths in the future.