The mom of a 13-year-old high-school basketball participant who drowned in the East River whereas watching an after-school soccer recreation is suing town, claiming it did not supervise her son.
Laquana Badger Godfrey, the mother of tragic Kavion Brown Godfrey, says her son’s drowning in October was a results of “gross negligence” by the Division of Training, the Public College Athletic League and a supervising coach, in line with the go well with — which follows a discover of declare suggesting the household would search $40 million.
“It’s like every day you’re residing in a nightmare,” Godfrey not too long ago advised The Publish, almost a 12 months after her first-born baby died.
“I’m in disbelief, I’m in ache, and my coronary heart is totally damaged,” she mentioned. “I noticed my son that Friday morning when he left for college, after which I haven’t seen my son once more alive.
“Anyone must be held accountable. My son is useless, and no one has solutions.”
The town declined to touch upon the newly filed go well with.
On Oct. 20, Godfrey had gotten a name from Kavion, a freshman at Decrease East Facet Preparatory College, asking if he might go together with his basketball staff to look at the varsity’s soccer staff play at a close-by park.
The mother of 4 boys didn’t give her OK till after Kavion handed the cellphone to hoops coach Joseph Asad, who can also be a named defendant in her lawsuit.
“‘Don’t fear,’” Godfrey recounted the coach promising. “‘Kavion goes to be with us, we’re touring as a bunch.’”
Coach Joe then introduced Kavion and his basketball staff to look at the after-school soccer match on the John V. Lindsay East River Park Observe, simply blocks from the younger teen’s Alphabet Metropolis house.
However regardless of the coach’s promise, the 13-year-old boy was “left unsupervised close to the waters adjoining to the park, the place he tragically drowned,” the go well with claims.
“He was nowhere to be discovered,” Godfrey mentioned of the coach.
“My son wasn’t with you, and it in the end led to my son’s demise,” she mentioned, addressing Asad.
Kavion’s physique was found 2 miles downriver a week later.
His mother and father each blamed the DOE for his death last year as police had been nonetheless combing the river for his physique.
Asad didn’t reply to Publish messages left on numbers listed underneath his identify.
“Kavion was a respectful, well-mannered, good younger man, and he had a number of issues going for himself,” Godfrey advised The Publish.
His three youthful brothers all appeared as much as him as a job mannequin and have been devastated since his demise, the mother mentioned.
“My son was my world, and now I don’t have my son,” Godfrey mentioned.
Godfrey mentioned that along with financial damages, she’s nonetheless determined for solutions and closure. No person from town has spoken to her since her son’s demise, and even police investigators demurred when pressed for data, she advised The Publish.
“Since this occurred, I can’t even permit my youngsters to go on [DOE] journeys as a result of I don’t belief the protection,” Godfrey mentioned.
One in every of her boys, a fifth-grader, requested if he might join the soccer staff at college. She mentioned no.
“I don’t belief the DOE anymore,” Godfrey mentioned.
“A guardian whose baby is underneath the supervision of the DOE has to have the ability to depend on guarantees made by lecturers, coaches and directors,” mentioned Godfrey’s legal professionals, Sanford Rubenstein and Mark Shirian, in an announcement.
“Right here, the coach promised he can be with the kid, supervise the kid — clearly he didn’t do this. This tragedy by no means would have occurred if he stored his promise to this grieving mom.”
In her discover of declare — a authorized precursor to submitting a lawsuit towards a metropolis company — Godfrey states she intends to sue for $40 million, though her lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court docket doesn’t identify a particular greenback determine.
However above all, she mentioned, she needs accountability for what occurred to her first-born son. And for what occurred to her to by no means occur to a different baby.
“There must be some kind of accountability as a result of we belief the DOE once we go away our kids’s lives in your palms, after which for one among your youngsters to not come house — It’s devastating,” she advised The Publish.
“I’m so unhappy about this as a result of one thing has to occur.”
