The state of Georgia has shut down a day camp after the tragic drowning of a 5-year-old boy.
Benjamin “Kamau” Hosch III drowned last week while on a field trip with the Camp Cricket Summer Day Camp to the Cochran Mill Nature Center near Atlanta.
On Tuesday, state officials filed a “cease and desist” order against Camp Cricket.
WXIA reports that on Friday, children from the camp were taken to a rock ledge, where they ate and played in a waterfall and swam. Kamau could not swim.
The outlet notes that it wasn’t until the group hiked back to the nature facility that staffers—45 minutes later—realized that little Kamau was missing, the family’s attorney said.
The 5-year-old’s parents were told he was submerged in the small pond for up to 20 minutes, according to the attorney. When first responders found Kamau, they gave him CPR and rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late.
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning confirmed Monday that Camp Cricket was operating without a license or an exemption from licensing, and Chattahoochee Hills, Ga., police detectives will meet with the district attorney to determine if any charges will be filed.
The family said Monday that they intend to file a lawsuit in Kaman’s death. They say they never gave the camp permission for him to go swimming because he cannot swim.
“No one should feel as broken as I do right now, as cheated,” said a tearful Ayisat Idris-Hosch, Kamau’s mother. “This is what they did to us. I have to live [with the fact that] I gave them money to kill my son for the rest of my life.”
Read more at WXIA.
