Teachers thought 5-year-old boy was playing dead after collapse, lawsuit says

Adults and classmates initially thought Romeo Pierre Louis was “playing dead,” something students allegedly often did, said his parents’ lawsuit. When teachers checked on him minutes later, he had no pulse.

The parents of a 5-year-old kindergartner who collapsed on the playground of his Connecticut elementary school and died days later marked the tragedy’s first anniversary last week with a lawsuit.

Chantel Pierre Louis and D’Meza Shultz Pierre Louis filed the suit Wednesday against the town of West Hartford and its board of education. According to The Washington Post, the parents alleged that their son, Romeo Pierre Louis, may have survived if someone had rendered medical attention sooner.

“We know that nothing will bring our son back,” said Chantel Pierre Louis, The Post reported. “All we can do is keep his memory in our hearts and do what we can so this doesn’t happen to another child.”

Romeo spent around 19 minutes playing with friends during recess at Charter Oak International Academy on April 5, 2022, per a West Hartford Police Department incident report. The boy stopped breathing and fell as he was playing freeze tag, according to authorities.

The lawsuit claims that those around him initially thought Romeo was “playing dead,” something students often did. However, three teachers checked on him minutes later — after another youngster told adults about Romeo’s’ inactivity — and found he had no pulse.

Romeo’s parents said that one teacher rushed him to the nurse’s office while a second contacted emergency personnel, but it was too late to save their son. He reportedly was attached to an oxygen tank when the police arrived and taken by ambulance to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.

While a police report stated the child passed away two days later, on April 7, from natural causes, an autopsy revealed that Brugada syndrome, a rare disorder that can cause irregular heart rhythms, caused Romeo’s death, according to CT Insider. He was just weeks shy of his sixth birthday.

Michael L. Chambers Jr., the lawyer for Romeo’s parents, said his clients were unaware of their son’s heart condition. He reportedly was unconscious for almost nine minutes before being carried to the school nurse.

“There is no reason why a 5-year-old child is on the ground for more than 30 or 45 seconds without an adult responding,” contended Chambers, according to The Post. “And had they responded, he would have been fine.”

According to the lawsuit, the town of West Harford is responsible for any negligence on the part of the education board.

“The death of a child under any circumstance is a tragedy,” said city lawyer Dallas C. Dodge, The Post reported, “and we extend our condolences to the family and friends of Romeo.”

Andrew Morrow, West Hartford Public Schools’ interim superintendent, issued a statement in which he offered condolences to the Louis family and said the school system provided grief counseling to the “deeply affected” students and staff of Charter Oak.

Romeo’s family and friends staged a vigil Wednesday afternoon after Charter Oak dismissed its students for the day. It was held close to where he collapsed. His mother requested on Facebook that participants wear white and bring posters that read, “Listen to our children.”

Family members recited the Lord’s Prayer and shared tales of Romeo’s devotion to the Bible, family movie nights and superheroes.

Chambers said that although Romeo’s family didn’t want to sue, they believed it to be their only option for holding the responsible parties accountable. He explained that they wanted to feel like their son’s death mattered and that something like this wouldn’t happen to another family.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking because it was completely and totally avoidable,” Chambers said, The Post reported. He said that when parents drop their children off at school each morning, they place a certain level of trust in the hands of teachers and administrators.

“And that trust,” Chambers asserted, “was absolutely broken.”

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