The family of a 4-year-old who died during his second swimming lesson is calling on the local district attorney’s office to do a thorough investigation of the case for criminal negligence.
Israel “Izzy” Scott was pulled out of the deep end of a private pool near Augusta, Georgia, where he was learning to swim with a certified instructor, Lexie Tenhuisen.
Tenhuisen said she does not know how he drowned. The instructor told authorities that she made sure all of the children were out of the pool before she got out. She was waiting for the students for the next class to all walk in when her granddaughter saw Izzy at the bottom of the pool on June 14.
The Burke County Sheriff’s Office said while there was some form of negligence that led to Izzy’s death, there was no evidence of criminal negligence. Sheriff Alfonzo Williams said he doesn’t believe Tenhuisen purposely neglected Izzy. However, the boy’s aunt, Lydia Glover-Fields, said the sheriff had not considered all the details in his decision. The family is asking the district attorney’s office to look closer.
“Criminal negligence is an act or failure to act which demonstrates a willful…willful wanting or a reckless disregard for the safety of others,’ Williams told station WJBF this week. “So, there you have it. You gotta prove a willful wanting or just a reckless disregard for the safety of others,” he said.
The sheriff’s office released its findings in the case on July 7. Investigators interviewed the instructor, parents and other students in the class who ranged from 4 to 9 years old.
Tenhuisen’s granddaughter, Baylor Coronati, said she spotted Izzy at the bottom of the pool’s deep end while pulling the vacuum out ahead of the next class. She told her grandmother, who immediately dove into the water to pull out the boy.
“Help me get him out!” Tenhuisen yelled.
Another mother helped Tenhuisen pull the boy’s limp body from the pool. Nancy Hillis, a nurse with a child scheduled for the next class, started to perform CPR.
Dr. Lora Darrisaw, the forensic pathologist, says Izzy died because of accidental drowning and that the length of time underwater could not be determined, but it was under one hour. Darrisaw did not see any signs of injury or struggle.
Tenhuisen said Izzy did well in class and was not afraid of the water. She instructed the children right before the end of the lesson to line up pool toys at the bottom of the pool. Izzy lined up four toys, and Tenhuisen praised him for doing a good job, the report says. Next, she instructed the children to swim the width of the shallow end of the pool before making sure that they got out, she said. Tenhuisen told authorities that she saw all 10 of the students in the class swim across the pool.
When the last child got out, Tenhuisen said she did too. She started greeting parents, dried off and sat down briefly before her granddaughter alerted her about Izzy, Tenhuisen said. She told investigators, Izzy could’ve gotten “a little too close to the drop off,” but she doesn’t remember “because there was just splashing,” and she was “watching them swim across.”
No one else said they heard a splash except Mason Washington, another student in Izzy’s class. Mason said Izzy got out of the pool before him after the final lap, but he heard a splash 10 seconds later. He believes Izzy jumped off the diving board. Mason said he did not see him on the board but heard him and that Izzy had mistakenly gotten on the diving board the first day of class.
Izzy’s aunt, Glover-Fields, pointed out that another student said her nephew was coughing and throwing up the first day of class. The report shows that Izzy told his mother, Dori Scott, that he didn’t want to go to class the second day, asking, “what if I drown?” Scott reassured her son that that would not happen.
“He took on too much water. So they took him out of the pool, sat him on the concrete and left him there,” Glover-Fields said during a roundtable on July 18.
Glover-Fields said Tenhuisen never informed Izzy’s mother, who had brought him to the class each day and waited for him. His aunt said she found numerous incidents of negligence in the report.
“If you don’t consider every word and exegetic every sentence and break it down for what’s it worth and let it stand on its own merit, then of course you’re not going to find anything,” Glover-Fields said.
In an earlier interview, the family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, told Atlanta Black Star that his office would be combing through the sheriff’s files to look for civil violations and check if employees followed procedure. The sheriff said some state regulations for swim classes do not apply to the case because the lessons were conducted in a private pool. Tenhuisen rented the pool from the homeowner for the classes.
The case is currently being reviewed by a panel of top law enforcement officials led by the Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
District Attorney Jared T. Williams said all decisions in the case would be “made independently of any other agency.”
“That is what justice demands, and what this family and community deserve,” he said in a statement.
“It is our job to remove emotion and external pressure from this decision and analyze the law and the facts of the case fairly. Integrity, Fairness, and Justice are our office’s guiding principles, and that will remain true throughout this independent review,” Jared T. Williams added.
