A teenager who drowned on a school canoe trip last month was one of 15 students who went on the excursion despite failing a required swim test, says the Toronto District School Board’s director of education.Another two students who were on the trip weren’t tested at all, John Malloy told a news conference Wednesday.“I’m deeply troubled by these findings,” Malloy said. “On behalf of the TDSB, I offer our most sincere apology and regret. 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.”Jeremiah Perry, a Grade 9 student, slipped underwater in a lake in the backcountry of Algonquin Provincial Park on July 4, prompting a day of rescue efforts and the evacuation of his classmates. The 15-year-old’s 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. Speaking to the Star by phone Wednesday, Perry’s father Joshua Anderson said he wasn’t surprised by the school board report, but that he appreciated the TDSB going public with the information.“This is information we knew already,” he said. “It is what it is . . . nothing can bring back Jerry.”Anderson said the family has no plans to act right away. They’re still awaiting results of the coroner’s office and the police investigations, he added.Though he wasn’t surprised, as Malloy spoke to him already Wednesday morning, Anderson said the family is still reeling from Perry’s death. “It’s too overwhelming,” he said. “Just watching it on TV, it&#x ...
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