Posted on 09/27/2013 9:52:03 AM PDT by Gamecock
A thoughtless phone call forced a bereaved father to begin grieving all over again.
Brooklyn teen Jean Fritz Pierre drowned on a class field trip in June, but that didn’t stop school officials who called his devastated dad last week to tell him his son was skipping class.
Jonas Pierre, who this month filed a notice of claim for two $5 million suits against the city over the 16-year-old’s death, said staff from Prospect Heights International High School called him to set up a meeting to discuss his son’s awful attendance record.
The distraught dad said the school’s insensitive phone call broke his heart again just as he began to recover from the greatest loss any parent could ever experience.
“I think, why are you calling, why are you telling me this,” said Pierre. “Don’t you know my son is dead?”
Pierre, 39, a retail worker, shared a humble Flatbush walkup with his beloved only son until the teen’s untimely death. “Maybe the school doesn’t think it’s important, but it’s important to me,” he said. “I don’t think I could ever get another son like him.”
The doomed freshman was one of 48 students on a field trip to Rockland County’s Bear Mountain State Park. The trip, intended to be a joyous celebration of the school year’s end, turned tragic when Jean Fritz and a friend left the group to cool down in Hessian Lake, where swimming is banned because of deep pits in the lake’s bottom.
Park workers who spotted the teens called them four times to return to dry land, but it was too late — Jean Fritz disappeared under the water. After a 50-minute search, police discovered his body. Cops said the cause of death was accidental drowning.
A probe by city investigators this week cleared school staffers in Jean Fritz’s death, but Pierre blames the school all the same.
Education Department officials said they would make sure Pierre receives no more calls.
“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 agency spokeswoman Erin Hughes.
But attorney Mark Rayo, who filed the suits on behalf of Pierre and his son, said the father hasn’t heard an apology from the city.
“They added insult to injury,” said Rayo. “How neglectful can you get?”
I see that you’ve never lost a child. The grief is unimaginable. Please don’t be so callous.
My thought was how could this phone call begin his grief all over again, when he is filing a law suit for millions of dollars?
Yep, that is exactly what I’m saying. Only those people directly involved would know about the death. Come next school year, the boy does not show up. But since the attendance office was not ever “officially” notified....
Not saying that the situation is right ... just that it is unfortunately “normal”.
BS News like that flies through a school. Especially in the office gossip pool.
Park workers who spotted the teens called them four times to return to dry land, but it was too late — Jean Fritz disappeared under the water. After a 50-minute search, police discovered his body. Cops said the cause of death was accidental drowning.
A probe by city investigators this week cleared school staffers in Jean Fritz’s death, but Pierre blames the school all the same. /b>
It seems to me that the kid did something he wasn't supposed to and unfortunately paid the price. If I were on the jury I wouldn't award the father a single cent. Kids do stupid thing all the time 99.99% of the time they get away with it, but every now and then they don't.
Been there. My son died 7 years ago and I still tear up sometimes when I try to mention him. It’s not beyond belief, I assure you.
New thinking indicates that FDR probably had Guillain-Barre Syndrome. You might be interested in Googling that.
FRegards!
Explain to me how this is something like jaywalking, that no one would notice ... and I'll try to side with you.
A kid drowns ... from Brooklyn ... Y'know ... d'guys dat wid take y'paht, jes' f'LOOKIN' at 'em ?
Bring a liberal means never having to say you're sorry.
Sounds like a promising area for study — perhaps somebody would fund it. LOL
Despite all that — I’m sure there are plenty of greedy plaintiff lawyers out there who would be eager to file lawsuit against the state (aka taxpayers) if that is what the family wanted.
Bring a liberal means never having to say you're sorry.
No
In our litigious society saying your sorry means admitting to guilt.
I am sure that the school’s lawyers informed the school administration that to issue an apology to the bereaved father could be used by the father in his lawsuit as an admission of guilt in wrong doing.
On a side note; never apologies after a car accident. You may believe that you were at fault but until the accident is thoroughly investigated you can not be sure. Never admit guilt to a cop in any case.
-—I see that you’ve never lost a child. The grief is unimaginable. Please don’t be so callous.-—
I bet he never fought Hitler either, but can assume Hitler was a bad guy.
The kid wandered off and broke a ton of rules inso doing. Sad that he died, but still.
-—Listen noob, that posters callous attitude toward a parent that lost a child has nothing to do with how the child died-—
Oh, you’ve been here longer than me. I guess that makes your opinion more valuable. Not.
I feel for the guy, but his son’s death was self-inflicted. If I were him I wouldn’t be suing anybody. I’d be sitting in a dark room wondering why I never taught my child how to read and follow orders.
Yes. It does. FReepers actually care about others.
You are a heartless, compassionless punk.
Schools are far more like autonomous fiefdoms where the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and UNLESS the correct paperwork has been filled out, then one department does not know about it.
Not saying it is a good thing. Only saying that is the way things are. I cite from personal experience. When I withdrew my child from public school to send her to a private school, apparently I had not filled out one of their “required” forms. I got a call next year as to why my kid was not showing up for class.
Trust me, it happens.
And while that school staff may have known about it, a couple of months later plus possibly new person plus possibly being called from some central office instead of the school all adds up to the person who called did not know about it.
It happens. Some drone in some office somewhere looks at their spreadsheet and sees a name and a number of absences and makes a call. All because that name was never removed and that is because some other drone never received a form to remove that name.
That “may” be true in Brooklyn, that may be true where you live, but around here kids that die while in the care of the school are remembered. By everyone.
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