*The parents of an elementary school boy who died during recess are taking legal action against a Connecticut town and its school board.
5-year-old Romeo Pierre Louis was playing outside during recess at his elementary school in West Hartford on April 7, 2022, when he collapsed, the Hartford Courant reports. According to court documents, teachers initially thought Louis was “playing dead.” Eight minutes would pass before a teacher checked on Romeo but by then, it was too late.
The teacher found the boy unresponsive and not breathing, according to police. He died two days later of a rare heart condition. Now the child’s parents, D’Meza Shultz Pierre Louis and Chantel Pierre Louis are suing the town of West Hartford and its education board. The parents believe their child could have been saved had the staff acted swiftly to provide him with medical care.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking because it was completely and totally avoidable,” Michael L. Chambers Jr., an attorney representing Romeo’s parents, told The Washington Post. “As any parent who every morning drops their child off at school, there’s a certain level of trust we put in teachers’ and administrators’ hands. And that trust was absolutely broken.”
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Parents sue school teachers ignored their son as he collapsed lay dying in playground NINE MINUTES https://t.co/cNJr5pKonK pic.twitter.com/aqaGut8ila
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) April 9, 2023
“There is no reason why a 5-year-old child is on the ground for more than 30 or 45 seconds without an adult responding,” Chambers said. “And had they responded, he would have been fine.”
The family’s “wrongful death” lawsuit alleges that several teachers were near Romeo when he collapsed on the ground for nearly 10 minutes — without any assistance or medical treatment.
It also alleges that several classmates warned teachers about the boy’s medical condition. However, the staff took no immediate action because the children were known to play a recess game called “play dead,” the suit claims. When teachers realized Romeo was not playing dead it was too late to save his life.
The state medical examiner listed his cause of death as “cardiac channelopathy, brugada syndrome (scn5a variant)“, and the manner of death as “natural,” per the Hartford Courant.
“This tragedy has deeply affected the Charter Oak International Academy community, and the school district continues to make grief support and emotional assistance available to any student or educator who needs it. Due to the pending legal claims, the school district will refrain from further comment,” West Hartford Acting Superintendent of Schools Andy Morrow said in a statement.
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