Berkshire County — At a press conference on Thursday, June 26, District Attorney Timothy Shugrue announced charges in the death of Giver Essien, 12, who drowned in Benedict Pond last year during a field trip at Beartown State Forest.
Giver Essien was on a field trip on July 17, 2024, and was taking part in the Pittsfield Public School’s Herberg Middle School 21st Century summer program.
At the press conference Shugrue announced that, after an almost year-long investigation, school program coordinator Linda Whitacre, 67, along with site supervisor Meghan Braley, 29, have been indicted on charges of felony manslaughter and misdemeanor counts of permitting injury to a child, and reckless endangerment of a child.
Shugrue said that the felony manslaughter charges have a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, while the maximum sentences for the misdemeanor counts are two and a half years.
He said that the investigation included interviews with summer program staff and students.
“The investigation found that the reckless conduct [of Braley and Whitacre] led to Giver’s death,” Shugrue said. “They may not have intended his outcome, but their actions, or rather lack thereof, caused this incident.”
Shugrue said that the program’s staff did not follow the state’s Christian’s Law.
The law outlines safety requirements for programs that take children swimming in freshwater areas and includes rules on certified instructors, swimming tests, assignments of personal flotation devices, and systems of group assignments based on swimming abilities.
“Staff members were not provided with orientation plans for swimming, and no swimming tests were administered before the trip,” Shugrue said. “A permit pulled [by the program] for the use of the state forest stated that 25 students would attend [on that day]. However, over 35 students attended the trip while a lifeguard was present. The site supervisor [Braley] allowed more children to enter the water than originally identified to the lifeguard. Originally, only 15 students were going to go swimming at one time in two separate groups at two separate times. Instead, the site supervisor allowed all 35 students to access the water as the trip schedule was running behind.”
Shugrue said that, as per state laws, 35 students in the water at the same time would have required two lifeguards to be on duty.
“The investigation revealed lapses in supervision and safety protocols during the trip,” he said. “Although students were grouped initially, they frequently moved between groups without constant oversight. There was no roll call system in place to ensure children were accounted for while in the water, nor was there a buddy system or any other swim safety mechanism implemented.”
Shugrue said that the “accountability for the children’s whereabouts in the water was unclear, if available at all.”
“No list was maintained to identify who was swimming at any given time,” he said. “The swimmers’ abilities were not tested. Alarmingly, children who could not swim were allowed into the water, and life jackets or flotation devices were not available to staff, nor the children.”
Shugrue said that during the investigation, it was discovered that at least three children in the program reported to Braley that Giver was unable to swim and had gone underwater.
“Those warnings were ignored,” he said. “Giver was not identified as missing until after students had already boarded the bus, and only then did an extensive search begin. [The search] initially was just limited to the dressing rooms, the bathrooms, and the outside areas of the pond.”
Shugrue said that Giver was unaccounted for by staff members for at least 70 minutes.
He said program staff members called Giver’s father around 1:30 p.m. to see if she was back at home, but the staff did not call 911.
Eventually, a child in the program and a local attorney present at the pond both called 911.
“Giver should not have been in the water in the first place,” Shugrue said. “Her parents both indicated [to the program] that she could not swim. I can’t tell you how long [Giver] was in the water, but I know she had not been seen for 70 minutes. She was in the water for at least 50 minutes, and that is just uncalled for.”
Shugrue said several times during the press conference that Giver’s drowning was preventable.
“When I was a kid, when we went to camp, you got a little tag [when you went swimming],” Shugrue said. “When you were in the water, the tag was on a board. When you came out of the water, you took the tag off of the board. These are simple, very inexpensive things to do. You can’t put our kids at risk. There are a lot of kids that cannot swim, and we found out through this tragedy.”
Shugrue said that drowning is the leading cause of death for children in the state.
“Drowning is a silent killer, and you’ve got to be very careful,” he said. “It only takes seconds for it to happen. I hope that, whatever happens from this going forward, is that everybody out there this summer realizes the extent and danger.”
He added that the investigation into Giver’s death is still ongoing.
