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Mom sues NYC after teen basketball player drowns on after-school outing: ‘Nobody has answers’
The mother of a 13-year-old high-school basketball player who drowned in the East River while watching an after-school soccer game is suing the city, claiming it fa𝔍iled to supervise her son.
Laquana Badger Godfrey, the mom of tragic Kavion Brown Godfrey, says her son’s drowning in October was a result of “gross negligence” by the Department of Education, the Public School Athletic League and a supervising coach, according to the suit — which follows a notice of claim suggesting the family would seek $40 million.
“It’s like each day you’re living in a ꧒nightmare,” Godfrey recently told The Post, nearly a year a🀅fter her first-born child died.
“I’m in disbelief, I’m in pain, an💎d my heart is completely broken,” she said. “I saw my son that Friday morning when he left for school, and then I haven’t seen my son again alive.
“Somebody needs to be held accountable. My son is dead, and nobody has answers.”
Th♈e city declined to comment꧑ on the newly filed suit.
On Oct. 20, Godfrey had gotten a call from Kavion, a freshman at Lower East Side Preparatory School, asking if he could go with his basketball team to watch♓ the sch♍ool’s soccer team play at a nearby park.
The mom of four boys didn’t give her OK until after Kavion passed the phone to hoop🌃s 🐼coach Joseph Asad, who is also a named defendant in her lawsuit.
“‘Don’t worry,’” Godfrey recounted the♔ coach promising. “‘Kavion is going to bꦚe with us, we’re traveling as a group.’”
Coach Joe then brought Kavion and his basketball team to watch the after-school soccer match at the John V. Lindsay East River Park Track, just blocks from the young teen’s Alphabet City home.
But despite the coach’s promise, the 13-year-old boy was “left unsupervised near the waters adjacent to the park, where he tragically drowned,” the suit claims.
“He wasﷺ nowhere to be found,” Godfrey said of the coach.
“My son wasn’t with you, and it ultimately led to my son’s demise,” she said, addressing Asad.
Kavion’s body was found 2 miles downriver a week later.
His parents both blamed the DOE for his death last year as police weꦆre still combing the river for his body.
Asad did not respond to P♋ost messag🎶es left on numbers listed under his name.
“Kavion🧸 was a respectful, well-mannered, smart young man, and he had a lot of things going for himself,” Godfrey told The Post.
His three younger brothers all lo𝓀oked up to hi𒊎m as a role model and have been devastated since his death, the mom said.
“My son was my w✤orld, and now I don’t have my son,” Godf🌊rey said.
Godfrey said that in addition to monetary damages, she’s still desperate for answers and closure. Nobody from the city has spoken to her since her son’s death, and even police investigators demurred when pressed for information, she to🌠ld The Post.
“Since this happened, I can’t even allow my kids to go on [DOE] trips because I don’t trust the safety,” Godfrey said.
One of her boys, a fifth-grader, asked if he could sign up f🔯or the soccer team at school. She said no.
“I don’t trust the DOE anymore,” Godfrey saidꦍ.
“A parent whose child is under the supervision of the DOE has to be a🍨ble to rely on promises made by teachers, coaches and administrators,” said Godfrey’s lawyers, Sanford Rubenstein and Mark Shirian, in a statement.
“Here, the coach promised he would be with the child, supervise the child — clearly he did not do that. T🗹his tragedy never would have occurred if he kept his promise to this grieving mother.”
In her notice of♈ claim — a legal precursor to filing a lawsuit against a city agency — Godfrey states she intends to sue for $40 million,🦂 although her lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court does not name a specific dollar figure.
But above all, she said, she wants accountability for what happened to her first-born son. And for what happཧened to her to never happen🧔 to another child.
“There has to be some type of accountability because we trust the DOE when we leave our children’s lives in your hands, and then for one of your children not to come home — It’s devastating,” she told The Post.
“I’m so sad about this because something has to happen.”
