Long Island City gives Avonte’s family $2.7M settlement
The city has agreed to pay the family of Avonte Oquendo, the 14 year-old autistic boy whose body was found along the College Point shoreline, $2.7 million in a settlement, according to the Law Department.
Avonte’s mother, Vanessa Fontaine, sued the Department of Education in a $25 million wrongful death suit for negligence in 2014. Fontaine claimed NYPD school safety officials at Riverview High School in Long Island City did not adequately supervise or protect her special needs child. Since Avonte was autistic, he had a propensity to run away and lacked good communication skills, according to the suit. In the suit Fontaine also claimed that safety officials did not act quickly enough and failed to immediately notify the Police Department after Avonte left the school’s premises.
When Avonte disappeared from the school in October 2013, video surveillance showed him running out the front door. Avonte’s whereabouts were unknown until January 2014, when officials discovered pieces of his body washed up onto the College Point shoreline. His family and volunteers had searched for him for months before his body was found.
“The loss of a child is a tragedy no family should endure, and hopefully the resolution of this legal matter will bring some measure of solace to Avonte’s family” The Law Department said in a statement about the settlement. “The DOE has taken a number of steps and is dedicated to taking every measure possible to prevent something like this from occurring again.”
Read more: http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2016/32/avontemom_2016_08_05_q.html
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