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 the 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 Schooling, the Public College Athletic League and a supervising coach, based on the swimsuit — which follows a discover of declare suggesting the household would search $40 million.
“It’s like every day you’re dwelling in a nightmare,” Godfrey lately instructed The Publish, almost a yr after her first-born youngster 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 varsity, after which I haven’t seen my son once more alive.
“Any person must be held accountable. My son is useless, and no person has solutions.”
The town declined to touch upon the newly filed swimsuit.
On Oct. 20, Godfrey had gotten a name from Kavion, a freshman at Decrease East Facet Preparatory College, asking if he may go along with his basketball staff to observe the college’s soccer staff play at a close-by park.
The mother of 4 boys didn’t give her OK till after Kavion handed the telephone to hoops coach Joseph Asad, who can 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 gaggle.’”
Coach Joe then introduced Kavion and his basketball staff to observe the after-school soccer match on the John V. Lindsay East River Park Observe, simply blocks from the younger teen’s Alphabet Metropolis dwelling.
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 swimsuit claims.
“He was nowhere to be discovered,” Godfrey mentioned of the coach.
“My son wasn’t with you, and it finally 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 below his title.
“Kavion was a respectful, well-mannered, sensible younger man, and he had numerous issues going for himself,” Godfrey instructed The Publish.
His three youthful brothers all appeared as much as him as a task mannequin and have been devastated since his loss of life, 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 one from the town has spoken to her since her son’s loss of life, and even police investigators demurred when pressed for data, she instructed The Publish.
“Since this occurred, I can’t even permit my children to go on [DOE] journeys as a result of I don’t belief the protection,” Godfrey mentioned.
One among her boys, a fifth-grader, requested if he may join the soccer staff in school. She mentioned no.
“I don’t belief the DOE anymore,” Godfrey mentioned.
“A mother or father whose youngster is below the supervision of the DOE has to have the ability to depend on guarantees made by academics, 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 in opposition to a metropolis company — Godfrey states she intends to sue for $40 million, though her lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court docket doesn’t title a particular greenback determine.
However above all, she mentioned, she desires accountability for what occurred to her first-born son. And for what occurred to her to by no means occur to a different youngster.
“There must be some kind of accountability as a result of we belief the DOE once we depart our kids’s lives in your palms, after which for one in every of your youngsters to not come dwelling — It’s devastating,” she instructed The Publish.
“I’m so unhappy about this as a result of one thing has to occur.”
