A disabled 4-year-old boy was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment after he was found face down and unresponsive in an elementary school pool.
Now his mother, Monica Leiva, is suing the Ontario-Montclair School District alleging that staff abandoned him by two pools, causing him to nearly drown to death.
Her son, who is referred to as J.M. in the complaint, is nonverbal and autistic and has spina bifida and hydrocephalus. He has an individualized education plan stating that he needs constant one-on-one supervision.
But on Dec. 12, he was left alone by the pools at Lincoln Elementary School in Ontario without any flotation devices, according to the complaint filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court on Wednesday.
During this time, he entered one of the pools and almost died, the suit states.
“This is every parent’s nightmare,” Robert Glassman, an attorney for the family, said in a statement. “A child with significant needs was left alone in a dangerous environment when he required constant supervision. That is a catastrophic failure.”
A representative for the district did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
In an interview with the Ontario Police Department, a teacher’s aide reported that she had been away from the boy for 10 minutes when she “began to hear people yelling frantically and calling out to him,” according to a police report attached to the complaint.
J.M.’s teacher told police that the boy is unable to use his legs from the knees down and that his only means of mobility is dragging or pulling himself up. She acknowledged that she was supposed to remain with the boy but was in the classroom at the time of the incident, according to the report.
The boy was airlifted to a hospital for emergency treatment after he was found unresponsive in the school’s pool.
(Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP)
After the boy received lifesaving emergency care, the district transferred him to a different school without the mother’s knowledge or consent, the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit characterizes this as “an effort to quietly address the dangerous condition of the campus without publicly acknowledging the failures that led to J.M.’s near drowning.”
The mother had previously submitted paperwork to the elementary school and district expressing clearly that her son was not permitted to participate in pool activities, the complaint states.
In the aftermath of the incident, J.M. has exhibited diminished cognitive function, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is terrified of bath time — an activity he previously enjoyed, according to the complaint.
The mother is suing the district for negligence and premises liability and seeking damages in an amount to be determined at trial for medical bills, emotional distress and other relief deemed proper by the court.
