The teacher of a five-year-old who died from choking on a nectarine stone while at school has told South Australia's Coroners Court she is not sure how he obtained the fruit in the first place.
Henley Beach Primary School special needs teacher Gillian Reddick said she had thought a lot about the day Lucas Latouche Mazzei died in 2017 and could not imagine how it happened.
"I'm just not able to say — I just don't know," she said.
The boy was watching his favourite cartoon, The Gruffalo, and was the only student in the classroom at the time.
Ms Reddick, who was supervising Lucas at one point, left the classroom and support officer Denise Hutton remained in the same room as Lucas but did not have a line of sight.
Ms Reddick said it was "contrary to practice" to let Lucas eat a whole fruit and spit the pip out.
"There's no occasion where he had spit out a stone," she said.
Ms Reddick said it was usual for teachers to cut up fruit for students as required.
Any excess fruit from their lunch boxes would either be stored in the fridge or separately in a locker.
"He put his rubbish in the bin — not a stone because we would have done that," Ms Reddick said.
She said it would have been possible for children to access their lunch boxes, locker or class fridge for food, but there were dedicated eating times during class.
"They have access to their lunch box [but] if we see them with it, we take it off them," she said.
Ms Reddick said it was usual practice to sit beside Lucas during eating time.
The 63-year-old said the boy had a very good appetite and tended to overfill his mouth while eating.
"I don't think he ate particularly slowly," she said.
Support officer could not see boy
Ms Hutton said she could not remember Ms Reddick telling her she was momentarily leaving the classroom.
She said she was in the room's internal office during the time, could not see Lucas, and was not concerned about him while he was watching his cartoon.
"He was a quiet, calm boy … he was engrossed by the television," Ms Hutton said.
The 54-year-old said she could not hear any sounds over the cartoon that was playing.
The court heard Ms Reddick slapped Lucas on the back several times after she returned to the room and realised he was choking.
When asked if she felt she had appropriate first aid training to respond to the situation, Ms Reddick said she did but was very emotional at the time of the incident.
Ms Hutton said she rang the front office once the slaps were unsuccessful and then triple-0 was called.
"I was looking for more help," she said.
The inquest continues.
