After three instructors were found not guilty of any misconduct, Jessica Lawson, a 12-year-old who drowned while on a school trip to France, demanded that someone be held accountable.
In July 2015, Jessica, a pupil at Wolfreton School in Willerby, died while swimming in a lake close to the city of Limoges. The instructors on the field trip were charged with homicide through willful misconduct.
Chantelle Lewis, Daisy Stathers, and Steven Layne had all faced three years in prison, according to the prosecution. They were exonerated of all charges on Wednesday.
Hannah Davison, Jessica’s older sister, has now expressed how devastated the family is by the judgment.
We had thought that this week would bring us closure so that we could start the process of moving on with our lives, but that hasn’t occurred, which is tough to accept, she added.
We won’t ever be able to comprehend what happened to Jessica until someone is held responsibility for her death,’ someone said. In such circumstances, it just cannot be true that a young girl who had her whole life ahead of her perished and it was nobody’s fault.
Tony and Brenda Lawson, her parents, had hoped that the three East Yorkshire teachers’ trial would shed light on the seven-year-old mystery surrounding their daughter’s death.
After the decision was announced on Wednesday, the distraught parents could be seen sobbing uncontrollably on the stairs of the Palais de Justice in the French town of Tulle. Tony had left the courtroom as soon as the instructors were found not guilty, distraught.
According to Ms. Davison, “My parents are crushed, utterly distraught, and their lives will never be the same again.”
But if this case had resulted in a different conclusion, at least they may have been able to make some sense of it. You may start putting measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again after you have a decision and some explanations.
But you can’t do that when the court rules that “no one is to blame, it’s just one of those things,” she explained.
Ms. Davison said that she now has her own children, who attend schools within the same authority and are five and seven years old. “How could I possibly take my kids on a school trip?” you ask. How could I possibly trust anybody to take care of my kids while I’m away?
“All parents must sometimes entrust professionals with the care of their children, and we need to be certain that all reasonable precautions have been taken to keep our children safe.”
“Jessica’s situation was different. The local mayor in France had been informed that the pontoon needed to be fastened in a certain specific manner, but it wasn’t.
The pontoon capsized, trapping Jessica, the youngest student traveling from Wolfreton School in Willerby, near Hull.
The orange plastic platform, which was intended for fewer than half that many kids, collapsed after more than 20 kids got on it and flipped over in the process.
It took too long for anybody to realize Jessica was gone because there were too many kids on the pontoon, according to Ms. Davison.
You had a young lifeguard on duty who had a lot of people to supervise, including other tourists who were visiting the lake in addition to the kids.
Hannah is particularly upset with East Riding Council because, in her opinion, they have never supported the family. My children attend school in the same local authority area, the woman said. How can I have faith that they will be protected while they are not with me? They won’t ever go on any field excursions organized by that authority, I can say with certainty.
While the lives of those on trial would return to normal, Ms. Davison said that would never be the case for her family, particularly her parents, who relocated to Portugal to avoid being confronted with “daily reminders” of what had occurred.
After the lawsuit, the instructors will return to their positions. They’ve never even been the target of a formal internal investigation. With the exception of our family, everyone else’s life will return to normal. As a family, we are now further removed from realizing the reality than ever before.
Because the continual reminders of what occurred destroyed their life, my dad and Brenda relocated to Portugal. Since we haven’t gotten the closure we so sorely sought, we’ll be going out to visit them the following week and will make a decision then on how to proceed with this.
Tony and Brenda Lawson’s Hull attorney indicated earlier today that they were dissatisfied with the verdict. The family is now thinking of filing a “civil appeal.”
According to Hull attorney Stephen Orridge of Pepperells Solicitors, “the family are utterly distraught.” They expected to get a lot of replies from the previous two days, but I don’t believe they have.
Mr. Orridge said, “In my judgment, that was an unexpected conclusion,” in a statement to BBC Radio Humberside. To get answers and justice for the Lawsons, we will keep collaborating with them.
No win, no loss, no draw, Brenda Lawson said on the Jessica Lawson Foundation Facebook page on Thursday. It’s enough enough.
“We, as a family, stand strong and continue to be one.”
a bond forged by our misfortune. A closeness that continues to be strengthened by our compass.
She still goes under the name Jessica Lawson.
The international media has “pronounced her name” during the last two days, Mrs. Lawson said.
And that’s OK for our family, too. Love that is unconditional has great power. Immeasurable.
“I’m Brenda Lawson, Jessica’s mother,” I said. She’s my little daughter. No court in any country will ever be able to take it away from me.
Marie-Sophie Waguette, the head of jurisdiction in Tulle, delivered her decisions via a translator yesterday. She said: “With respect to the instructors, Mr. Layne, Miss Lewis, and Miss Stathers, you have been accused of not having properly complied with risk-evaluation standards.
The court, however, held that you were not required to do any particular inspections. The lifeguard was on duty, he or she was inspecting the area, and a green flag was flying.
It is not apparent from today’s discussions or the information given, said Miss Waguette, that the instructors ever disregarded their obligation to keep an eye on the activities.
There was no justification for anticipating that the floating platform may go over.
The court, according to Miss Waguette, was aware that between five and ten minutes had passed between the platform tipping over and the lifeguard pulling Jessica from the sea.
“We don’t know why she drowned at the same moment the platform collapsed. You are judged not guilty since there is no evidence to support their negligence.
Their trial heard on Tuesday how Miss Lewis “began to fear” during the encounter and inquired, “Where’s Jess?”
When she learned Jessica was gone, Miss Stathers, a colleague of hers, said she too got ‘increasingly terrified,’ but she tried to remain composed since there were 23 other pupils to get out of the water with.
The instructor in charge of the excursion, Mr. Layne, said in court that he believed the pontoon to be a safety measure. According to Mr. Layne, neither the lifeguard nor the students showed “any form of anxiety” throughout the event.
Ms. Stathers’ attorney, Stephane Babonneau, said in court Wednesday at the Palais de Justice in the French town of Tulle that his client and her coworkers experienced comparable sadness to the Lawson family after Jessica’s death.
Tony Lawson, a grieving father, was moved to leave the courtroom after hearing the comment, but Ms. Lewis swiftly clarified that the agony she was referring to was “different from what the family endures.” Shortly after Mr. Lawson left the courtroom, the chief of the Tulle jurisdiction postponed the proceedings.
When given the chance to speak, Mr. Layne and Ms. Stathers refused.
The attorney for Ms. Lewis said that the instructors’ response times were as quick as they could be and clarified that dynamically monitoring pupils did not need glancing at each kid “every microsecond.”
The PE instructor “suffers under the weight of duty,” he said.
Anis Harabi, one of the attorneys for Mr. Layne, said that Jessica’s death was an accident with no “culprits” and that his client shouldn’t be held to a standard of “clairvoyance.”
Mr. Harabi said that since the swimming area was “managed,” Mr. Layne did not consider it to be hazardous.
Dominique Tricaud, another attorney for Mr. Layne, said that when the instructors discovered Jessica was gone, they responded “simultaneously” and that the group was searching “tirelessly.”
All three of the instructors were to get a three-year prison term, according to the prosecution.
Leo Lemaire, the lifeguard who was on duty at the time, and the Liginiac town council were also found not guilty.