Mom of a 13-year-old high school basketball player those who drowned in the East River A woman is suing the city, alleging the city failed to supervise her son while he was watching a football game after school.
LaQuana Badger Godfrey, mother of tragic Kavion Brown Godfrey, says her son's Drowning in October The incident was the result of “gross negligence” by the Department of Education, the Public School Athletic League and a supervising coach, according to the lawsuit — which came after a notice of claim suggested the family would seek $40 million.
“It’s like you’re living a nightmare every day,” Godfrey recently told The Post, nearly a year after the death of her firstborn child.
“I can't believe it, I'm in pain and my heart is completely broken,” she said. “I saw my son on Friday morning when he left for school and after that I never saw my son alive again.
“Someone needs to be held accountable. My son is dead and no one has answers.”
The city declined to comment on the newly filed lawsuit.
On October 20, Godfrey received a call from Kavion, a freshman at Lower East Side Preparatory School, asking if he could go with his basketball team to a nearby park to watch the school's football team play.
The mother of four boys didn’t give her approval until Kavian gave the phone to basketball coach Joseph Assad, who is also a named defendant in her lawsuit.
“Don't worry. Kavion will be with us, we are traveling as a group,” Godfrey recalled the coach promising.
Coach Joe then took Kavion and his basketball team to watch an after-school football game at the John V. Lindsay East River Park track, just a few 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 water adjacent to the park where he tragically drowned,” the lawsuit claims.
“He was nowhere to be found,” Godfrey said of the coach.
Addressing Assad, he said, “My son was not with you and ultimately my son died.”
Kaavian's body Found a week later 2 miles down river.
both of his parents Blamed DOE for his death last year The police were still searching for his body in the river.
Assad did not respond to posted messages left at numbers listed in his name.
“Kavion was a respectful, well-mannered, intelligent young man, and he had a lot of great qualities,” Godfrey told the Post.
The mother said that his three younger brothers considered him as their role model and they are all in shock after his death.
“My son was my world, and now I don't have my son,” Godfrey said.
Godfrey said that in addition to the financial loss, she is still desperate for answers and solutions. She told the Post that no one from the city has spoken to her since her son's death, and even police investigators declined when pressed for information.
“Ever since this incident happened, I can't even allow my kids to go on (DOE) trips because I don't trust the security,” Godfrey said.
One of her sons, a fifth-grade student, asked if he could enroll himself in the school football team. She refused.
“I don’t trust the DOE anymore,” Godfrey said.
“Parents whose child is in the care of the DOE must rely on promises made by teachers, coaches, and administrators,” Godfrey’s attorneys, Sandy Rubenstein and Mark Shirian, said in a statement.
“Here, the coach promised he would stay with the child, look after the child – clearly he didn't do that. If he had kept his promise to this grieving mother this tragedy would never have happened.”
In her notice of claim — which is a legal precursor to filing a lawsuit against a city agency — Godfrey said she intends to sue for $40 million, though her suit, filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court, does not cite a specific dollar figure.
But most of all, she said she wants accountability for what happened to her first-born son. And that what happened to him should not happen to any other child.
“There has to be some sort of accountability, because we trust the DOE, when we leave the lives of our children in your hands, and then one of your children doesn’t come home — that’s devastating,” he told the Post.
“I'm very sad about this because something had to happen.”
