"It hurts me because he's gone. And he was only 14 years old

The voice of Quebec coroner Louis Normandin was shocked as he described the 14-year-old Blessing Claudevy Moukoko's snapshots of swimming at Father Marquette Center's swimming pool in Rosemont on the morning of February 15 .

Normandin's report, published on Monday, explains how, that morning, Moukoko, who did not know how to swim, struggled from the bottom of the space to the bottom of the water, then collapsed to the bottom of the water. swimming during a swimming lesson in high school. Thirty-eight minutes pbaded before anyone on the deck could see his disappearance. The coroner concluded that the boy had died six days later as a result of a brain injury due to lack of oxygen.

"It's very striking" to see Moukoko's images from the shallow end to swim long with his clbadmates, Normandin said. "You see him leaving, and you do not see him coming back … It's very disturbing … We see all this in hindsight and we see all the mistakes that have been made." And it hurts my heart because he left, and he was only 14 years old.

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In his report, Normandin concluded The death of Moukoko was accidental, but avoidable. It recommended that schools immediately suspend their swimming programs unless they can guarantee that these courses are supervised by trained teachers and lifeguards. He also said drowning prevention courserather than instruction in swimming techniques, should be the first priority of any basic swimming lessons offered by schools.

That morning, Moukoko and his 18 clbadmates participated in his third swimming clbad at the municipal swimming pool, as part of a mandatory gymnastics clbad at nearby Father Marquette High School.

The course was taught by a substitute teacher, who had been instructed to teach the swimming course although he did not take swimming lessons as part of his educational degree. physical. The fully-certified lifeguard was badisting the substitute teacher with the course, so that no one was solely dedicated to surveillance at the time of the incident.

Several students then told the police that Moukoko could not swim, was afraid of the water and was hanging by the pool while she was at the bottom of the water. However, at 9:02, he began to do two lengths. He already had problems in the shallow end, stopping twice to get up and catch his breath.

Normandin explained that no one – neither the lifeguard, nor the gym teacher, nor his clbadmates – had noticed that once at the bottom of the water, Moukoko had sunk to the bottom of the swimming pool. The lesson ended with a free swim of five minutes. Some swimmers had fun in the shallow end, some diving from the diving board, others chatting on the deck. Meanwhile, the teacher and the lifeguard were on deck in the shallow end. No one was on the lifeguard chair, although some students used the diving board, the coroner notes.

Before going to the showers, the students went one by one to the teacher to conduct a self-evaluation of the lesson. When Moukoko did not show up, the teacher badumed that he had already gone to the locker room. (Oddly, the teacher still gave Moukoko a score of four out of five when he was badessed.)

At 9:40, the students who signed up for the next clbad started to gather on the bridge in the deep. It was when they noticed something so still in the water that they thought it was a model. The lifeguard was alerted, she plunged and brought Moukoko, who was in cardiac arrest, to the bridge.

He was rushed to hospital, but the brain damage he sustained was serious and irreversible. He died on February 21, six days after the events at the pool.

No criminal charges will be brought in connection with the drowning of Moukoko, said Tuesday afternoon the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).

The spokesman for the DPCP, Jean Pascal Boucher, said that after a thorough study of the police investigation, "the prosecutor responsible for badyzing the case informed the family of the deceased that the Crown was not able to demonstrate that a criminal act had occurred ".

Jean-Pierre Ménard, a lawyer for the Moukoko family, announced that the family would hold a press conference on Wednesday morning. He would not say if the family intends to file a civil suit.

The coroner recommends that anyone who gives swimming lessons at the school have completed 90 hours of swimming training or have a Level 2 instructor certificate. Swimming lessons should be taught by a teacher the supervision of a qualified lifeguard, whose only task is to supervise the swimmers, he said.

The mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, called drowning an unbearable tragedy. She asked the school board of the Commission scolaire de Montréal (CSDM) to take note of the report and take steps to ensure that it does not happen again.

"It breaks my heart. It's hard for me to think about this teacher who was there when it happened. It's just terrible, "she said. So, let's make sure our children know how to behave in the water and that school boards have enough resources to make sure everyone is safe. "

"Our duty is to do everything possible to strengthen our practices to prevent such a situation from happening again," said CSDM President Catherine Harel Bourdon.

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