A legal claim has been filed against the San Ramon Valley Unified School District after an accidental drowning of a student last school year.

You may recall that initially, the death of Ben Curry was thought to be a suicide, but an autopsy performed revealed he drowned after slipping into the water and no one noticed.

Ben Curry’s mom and dad are heartbroken about this case and don’t want anything like this to happen to any child ever again.

And that is why their attorney says they are proceeding with legal action against the school and the teacher that was there when ben died. 

The claim contains chilling details about the day 15-year-old Curry died. Curry was in a swimming class.

The teacher, Aaron Becker, told the 57 kids to tread water for 3 minutes–if they touched the rope, 30 seconds more. That is when Ben slid under the water and no one came to his rescue, the claim states. 

Attorney Andy Schwartz, who is representing Ben’s family, says the surveillance video over San Ramon Valley High School’s pool couldn’t be more clear. 

The Curry’s are also outraged about the fact the school district did not correct reports that Ben committed suicide. It was not until a month later when the coroner’s report came out stating that Ben died of an accidental drowning.

Here is the full statement from the school:

SRVUSD just received the claim. We have not yet reviewed it and thus cannot comment on the contents.

What I can address is concerns that have been expressed regarding SRVUSD correcting false narratives.

As a school district, we were not in a position to comment on an open police investigation into the cause of death. What we did do is encourage our families not to speculate on the cause of death or engage in rumors.

The following was a statement included in an email in May 2018 from Principal Jason Krolikowski to parents:

“We understand that there are many rumors circulating in the community, but we want to discourage students from discussing these rumors since they may turn out to be inaccurate and can be hurtful and unfair to family and friends. We’ll do our best to give you accurate information as it becomes known to us.”

I can confirm that Aaron Becker is a teacher at SRVUSD, but cannot comment on any questions related to confidential personnel information.

I can also share with you that SRVUSD has not offered swimming as part of our P.E. classes since the drowning took place. SRVUSD is currently limiting pool use to our water polo and swim teams. We have added a requirement that professional lifeguards are on duty any time our pools are in use.

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