I KILLED MY CLASSMATE ON SPORTS DAY

A FREAK ACCIDENT AT SCHOOL BECAME SOMETHING LIS HAD TO LIVE WITH FOREVER

- Emma Levett

As she stood behind the white line getting ready to throw, Lis Cashin’s heart was pumping excitedly. It was high school sports day and, for 13-year old Lis, it was a time for her to shine.

“I was bullied at school and my home life was hard, too,” Lis, now 50, tells New Idea. “Recognition through sport made me thrive. I played netball and tennis and I competed in javelin.”

That sunny sports day on July 15, 1983 was full of promise for the vulnerable young teen, but it ended in a way that shattered Lis’ world – something she would only come to understand 30 years later.

Waiting for the whistle, Lis pulled her arm back, and, as it sounded, she flung the javelin through the air. She watched proudly as it flew straight. But then, at the last minute, it was as if the wind took it and it veered off course.

Panic hit the watching school girls. Sammy, another Year Eight student, was standing right in the trajectory of the speeding javelin.

“People screamed at her. She was distracted and hadn’t seen it,” Lis remembers. “She turned and for a brief moment, I thought, ‘that was close’, but then, horror. It struck her in the head.

“The shock I felt was overwhelming. I collapsed on my knees. It was as if all the life force had drained out of me. I couldn’t believe it.”