The family of a 14-year-old boy who drowned during a school swim class in February said they’re planning to file a lawsuit against the City of Montreal and the Montreal School Board.

On Wednesday, the family of Blessing Moukoko spoke to media, saying that despite a coroner’s report released the day before, there are still numerous unanswered questions about what happened to their son.

“There was nobody to look after my son when everybody knew he didn’t know how to swim. He just wanted to learn,” said mother Evelyne Mavoungou-Tsonga. “As a mom, when I send my son to school, I also expect them to ensure the security of my son. That was a big shock, to hear there was nobody to survey my son in the water when they knew he didn’t know how to swim.”


Death was preventable

The coroner's report concluded Moukoko’s death at the Pere-Marquette Pool in Rosemont was preventable.

In the report, Coroner Louis Normandin said Moukoko could barely swim, but little attention was paid to his struggling in the water, even after a classmate called for help.

Moukoko wasn’t found until a second class arrived and saw him at the bottom of the pool. He had been underwater for 38 minutes. The boy was taken to hospital, suffering from severe brain damage, and died several days later.

“Me, as a father, I'm so, so deeply devastated. I don't have words to express myself,” said the boy’s father, Jean-Claude Moukoko.

The report concluded that there was inadequate supervision of the students who were swimming and neither the lifeguards nor teacher conducted a head count to ensure everyone was out of the pool.

The report also showed that the teacher was not adequately trained for swimming lessons and no one was watching the entire pool because the lifeguard had to help teach the class.

The family believes it was negligence.


Family hopes to prevent future tragedies

The family’s attorney, Jean-Pierre Menard, said it’s not year clear when they will file the lawsuit, or how much the family will seek in compensation, but that they hope the suit can help prevent future tragedies from occurring.

“We want the institution to take all the action to correct and prevent this kind of event to happen again,” said Mavoungou-Tsonga

To that end, the family is also planning on setting up a foundation in Blessing's memory that would be dedicated to ensuring young people are safe while taking part in school activities and sports.

"This is an extremely sad story because it could have been preventable with a minimum of supervision," said Menard.

Mavoungou-Tsonga said life since her son's death has been an endless struggle.

"This is not living," she said. "I'm just fighting for my whole life now. I was almost dead by shock. It's so hard, still."

Details of the civil suit will be filed in the coming weeks.