The instructor needs a serious kick in the pants here. The kid did well to walk away. I wonder if he might have been a little reluctant and didn't speak up?
I recall not long after 1st solo, turning up to a booking for circuits and telling the instructor I wasn't keen due to the lowish cloud base. Nah you'll be right, give it a crack. I chickened out and the instructor (not IR at that stage) suggested she'll head up with another student and give me a report. Be ready to go she says.
Well, not 200' AGL she disappears into the murk only to be spotted thirty seconds later in a steep, descending bank back over the dead side adjacent to a decommissioned tower. How she missed it I'll never know, but they survived. What I do know is if it was me, it probably would have been a very different outcome.