The still-grieving family of two teenagers who drowned in a Bayonne school pool last year are close to filing a lawsuit against the city, school district and lifeguards who were present over what their attorneys describe as a systemic failure to operate the pool safely.
Attorneys Daryl Zaslow and Barry Eichen said their own investigation into the June 8 tragedy at Lincoln Community School pool found a failure to both identify dangers present at the pool and mitigate them, including on the day the brothers drowned.
They have worked with aquatic experts to prepare the complaint that they expect to file in February against any parties responsible for the pool’s management, Zaslow said.
“The city has the responsibility to prevent this incident, to recognize what was happening at the onset … and to safely and responsibly respond to it, and at every one of those they failed,” Zaslow told The Jersey Journal Friday.
Police have said there were three lifeguards on duty that evening when ZhengYu “Jack” Jiang, 16, and Chu Ming Zheng, 19, drowned in the school pool.
Jack would have entered his senior year at Bayonne High School that fall, and Zheng was a freshman at the University of Miami.
They are survived by their mother, father and younger sister.
“Their lives are destroyed,” Zaslow said. “The mom can’t converse without breaking down.”
The family filed notices of claims last June for a total of $100 million to the state, county and city as well as the Board of Education, Bayonne schools superintendent and Lincoln Community School principal.
Litigation would hopefully prevent a similar drowning death from happening again by motivating those who manage pools nationwide to assess risks and establish proper protocols, Zaslow said.
The city and school superintendent declined to comment on the prospective litigation. The pool remains closed, though the superintendent declined to comment on why.
Prior to the drownings, the school pool had been used for years for open swim nights during the school year as well as high school swimming and diving competitions.
At least three lifeguards were present at the pool the evening that the brothers drowned, and firefighters and EMTs responded as well, according to the police department. Photographs of the pool show a sudden, cliff-like drop off from a section labeled as 4 feet deep to one labeled as 13 feet deep.
Zaslow described the siblings as having minimal swimming skills. Zheng was able to swim in the shallow end and had been teaching his brother and sister how to swim, he said.
Their parents immigrated to the United States from China and ran a Chinese restaurant, which they have closed since their sons died, he added.
Zheng had been accepted to Ivy League universities before attending the University of Miami on an academic scholarship, the attorney said. His younger brother was excellent at chess and looking forward to applying to college, he said.
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