The body of 15-year-old Guyanese-born Jeremiah Perry; a Toronto student who went missing during a school trip has been found in a lake in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park, according to Canadian media reports.
Ontario Provincial Police Const. Catherine Yarmel said the teen’s body was found Wednesday afternoon in Big Trout Lake.
CTV News reported that the teen; a student at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute moved to Toronto from Guyana last September.
According to reports, Perry and his older brother joined more than 30 other students on the trip to the provincial park as part of a summer school outdoor education program.
Perry’s stepmother, Jennifer Anderson, told CP24 that she and her husband got a call from a school official late Tuesday night, informing them that one of their sons was missing. The family was told that the teen had been swimming and is presumed drowned.
The teen’s father, Joshua Anderson, said he had no safety concerns when he sent his sons on the school trip and believed that all the proper protocols would be followed.
Shari Schwartz-Maltz, a spokesperson for the Toronto District School Board, told CP24 that all students had to take a swim test before they could go on the trip. She said six adult supervisors, including two teachers, were on the outing. “We feel that we did have adequate supervision.”
School board president John Malloy said in a statement that the summer outdoor education course and program has been running for several years with “an excellent safety record.”
Algonquin Park is located approximately 275 kilometres northeast of Toronto.
