A 15-year-old Toronto boy who drowned on a school canoe trip last month did not pass a required swim test, the Toronto District School Board’s director of education says.An investigation has found that Jeremiah Perry was one of 15 students who went on the trip despite failing the mandatory swim test, John Malloy told a news conference Wednesday. Another two students who were on the trip were not tested at all, he said.“I’m deeply troubled by these findings,” Malloy said.“On behalf of the TDSB, I offer our most sincere apology and regret,” he said. “I also want to apologize to the families of the other students who went on the trip even though they didn`t pass the required swim test.”Perry, a Grade 9 student, slipped underwater on a lake in the backcountry of Algonquin Provincial Park on July 4, prompting a day of rescue efforts and the evacuation of his classmates. His body was recovered the next day.All participants in the trip were supposed to undergo swim tests, but Perry’s father has said his son didn’t know how to swim. The boy’s brother, Marion, was also on the canoe trip when Perry drowned. Perry went to C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute in North York. He started at the school in October after immigrating to Canada from Guyana.TDSB policy requires that all students going on such trips pass a canoe-specific swim test at a third-party facility on a lake. If they didn`t pass that test, they should have had another opportunity to pass, with another test and one-on-one swim coaching at the C.W. Jeffreys pool. “It would appear that our procedures weren’t followed,” Malloy said, and no further swim tests or instruction were offered afterwards.Malloy said the teachers involved are on home assignment and have refused to speak to TDSB. He said they will be disciplined in accordance with board policies.He would not comment when asked if the same teachers had organized ...
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