As we head into October, one high school is taking attendance seriously. Maybe a little too seriously. Staff at Prospect Heights International High School in New York called to discuss a 16-year-old boy's truancy. Only one problem—he has been dead since June.
But it gets worse. According to an article in New York Daily News, Jean Fritz Pierre from Brooklyn died tragically on a field trip to Upstate New York with the very same school.
Now the grieving dad, Jonas Pierre, is suing the city for his son's death, which he blames on neglect. Though his son was cautioned against swimming in Hessian Lake by park officials due to the lake's deep pits, the teen was later found drowned.
“I think, why are you calling, why are you telling me this,” said 39-year-old Pierre, who was shocked at the school's insensitivity. “Don’t you know my son is dead?”
Although Prospect Heights officials were cleared of blame recently in a formal investigation into Jean Fritz’s death, his father holds the school accountable all the same.
And can you blame him, really? You have to wonder how responsible a school is when it doesn't even bother to record that one of its students has died—on a class trip... So much for duty of care.
“We apologize for any pain or suffering this may have caused the family and are checking all data systems to ensure that the family doesn’t receive these calls anymore,” said Department of Education spokesperson, Erin Hughes.
Can you believe this? Almost as shocking and awful as this recent misstep.
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