A 14-year-old Canadian student drowned and spent an estimated 38 minutes underwater during a high school swim class before anyone realized he was at the bottom of the pool, according to official reports.
The coroner’s investigation, released Monday, urged a comprehensive overhaul of how swim instruction is conducted in schools after the death of eighth-grader Blessing Claude Moukoko in February, the Montreal Gazette reported.
On Feb. 15, Moukoko was participating in a required swimming lesson at Montreal’s Centre Père-Marquette when he apparently slipped beneath the surface in the deep end and went unnoticed. Classmates only discovered his submerged body after the physical education period had ended, officials said. He was pulled from the water and immediately given CPR before emergency medical personnel transported him to Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
By then, Moukoko had sustained catastrophic brain damage. Despite life-saving efforts, he never recovered and died six days later, CTV News reported.
The coroner’s report concluded that the focus of school swimming programs needs to shift more urgently toward water safety awareness and vigilance, rather than relying solely on traditional instruction methods. It highlighted systemic gaps in supervision and resource allocation that allowed such a delay in recognizing a student in distress.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante expressed her anguish over the tragedy. “It just breaks my heart. It’s hard for me to think about this teacher who was there when it happened. It’s just terrible,” she told the Gazette. “So let’s make sure that our kids know how to behave in water and let’s make sure that school boards have enough resources so they can make sure that everybody’s safe.”
The incident has prompted calls from the coroner and public officials for schools to improve lifeguard training, reduce student-to-supervisor ratios during aquatic activities, implement better monitoring protocols, and ensure that educators and support staff are equipped to recognize and respond to signs of drowning—many of which can be subtle and easily missed.
The loss of Blessing Claude Moukoko has become a rallying point for parents and advocates pushing for immediate policy changes to prevent similar tragedies, emphasizing that vigilance, proper resourcing, and education about water safety must be nonnegotiable components of school swim programs.