They ran away from school during class hours to go swimming: they drowned

Two 13-year-old boys from Richmond Hill dropped out of school during school hours to swim in the Jamaica Bay estuary in New York, and their mischief ended in tragedy: both died trapped in “turbulent waters”.

Daniele Persaud Y Ryan Wong They were swimming with a group of friends in the bay near Beach 96th Street and Cross Bay Boulevard at around 11:40 am on a Friday.

According to police reports, the children were standing on a sandbar when it collapsed, trapping them underwater.

Seeing what had happened, the two boys’ friends ran out of the water and yelled at the people who were there to alert the police.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Ryan waved their arms to rise to the surface, which was useless as their whereabouts were not a lifeguard area.

Informed of the disappearance of the young people, the firefighters and the patrol of the port of New York went to the scene. It was late. The children were found by rescuers and rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where they were declared dead.

“It always happens … they were walking in the water at a depth of about half a meter, then the channel suddenly fell to a depth of 2-3 meters and some of these children were unable to swim,” a source said. police the New York Post.

Responsibility of the school?

Samantha SinghPersaud’s mother he accused the school of not informing him in time that his son had left the class. As she told the Post, the school alerted her “several hours later” they realized that Daniel was not among those present.

“They didn’t call me to let me know I wasn’t in class until a few hours later. They must notify parents immediately, especially a high school, “the 43-year-old woman said through tears.

“We didn’t get a call until 7pm. If we had been able to get a call earlier we could have gotten a lead on her phone. “

When she managed to contact the school, she was told that her son had left just before 10am. “I have four kids. Nowadays, you have to know where they are all the time. I thought you were in school. Just a couple of hours, I haven’t tracked him down,” Singh said.

Daniel’s mother ensured that the school her eldest daughters went to would notify her if one of her daughters left school without warning.

In turn, the bus driver who took the children to Jamaica Bay also caught his attention: “The bus that took them, the driver, why didn’t he realize they were small children alone? “

Singh described his Persaud as a “calm and bright young man”. He said that he was a student with nearly ten average and that he was always “available”. “I’ve always gone to the pool and the beach. He didn’t know how to swim that well, but he loved the water. I always went to the beach ”, he concluded.