An attorney says surveillance video appears to show an East Bay teacher, who was supervising a swim class, looking at his cell phone when one of his students drowned.
This is all written in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday morning in Contra Costa County–more than six months after 15-year-old Benjamin Curry was found dead at the bottom of a high school pool.
The attorney would not release the surveillance video to KRON4 but says it shows Curry struggling and ultimately going underwater at San Ramon Valley High School.
“He was found in his bathing suit at the bottom of the pool,” family attorney Andy Schwartz said.
More than an hour after class, Curry was discovered underwater in his high school’s swimming pool.
Now, Curry’s family attorney says surveillance video shows the teacher standing on a diving board about 15 feet away possibly looking at his cell phone.
“And it appears to us, the teacher had his cell phone in his hand and he was looking at his cell phone as he’s supervising the children,” Schwartz said.
According to a lawsuit filed in court on Tuesday morning, the video shows Curry exhausted and slipping underwater while the 57 students in class were instructed to tread water.
It also claims the teacher, Aaron Becker, never took roll call at the end of class.
“It seems like a ridiculous amount of students for one teacher to watch,” Schwarz said.
The lawsuit alleges that the teacher had minimal water safety training and his lifeguard certification lapsed about two months before the drowning.
The San Ramon Valley Unified School District will not comment on pending litigation but released a statement today that said in part:
“This event was and will remain a tragedy in our hearts and minds forever. The district sincerely apologizes to the curry family and all the community members. There are no words to describe the collective sorrow following the loss of Ben.”
The district told KRON4 they no longer use pools during physical education classes, and if the pool is being used at school, lifeguards will now be present.