Family Suing School After Teen Drowns on Trip

A Delaware County family is demanding answers after their teenage son drowns during a school field trip.

Carnez Boone, 14, of Collingdale was visiting the Stoneboro Lakeside Park Beach in Mercer County, N.J. with the Youth Educational Services Academy for troubled teens on July 30 when he slipped below the surface.

Lifeguards managed to pull the teen from the lake and tried to resuscitate him, but it was too late.

The boy's family says the school knew their son couldn't swim even after they assured them he was taught.

"They told me that he was tested for swimming, but the owner told me they never tested any of the kids for swimming," Carnez's mother Okita Allen said. "That was their first visit at the lake."

The school disputes their claim. In a statement released Thursday, the YES Academy said, in part:

"Heroic measures were taken by our staff and the lifeguards and the patrons of the lake who helped to revive him but were unsuccessful."

The Allen family is filing a lawsuit against the school and the lake.

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