Parents of Sag Harbor 6th grader who died on Pennsylvania rafting trip sue school district, others, claiming lack of supervision, safety

The parents of a Sag Harbor sixth grader who drowned during a whitewater rafting trip in the Poconos have filed a lawsuit against the school district and other organizers.

Cesar Hernan Albarracin Guncay and Delia Leonor Guncay Morales filed the suit Monday in Suffolk County Supreme Court more than five months after the death of their son Cesar Albarracin Guncay. He was 12.

Cesar was one of 74 sixth graders who on May 27 embarked on the third annual Pierson Middle/High School trip to the Lehigh River in East Penn Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, Newsday previously reported. About 5:30 p.m., the raft carrying Cesar capsized, sending him and four others into the water. The others were rescued.

In addition to the district, the suit names Superintendent Jeff Nichols, Hampton Jitney, which curated the trip, and Whitewater Rafting Adventures LLC, the Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania-based company that provided the excursion.

The district "negligently, carelessly, and recklessly permitted defendant Whitewater Rafting to operate the trip despite defendant Jitney having hired and arranged for only five guides" from the Pennsylvania company to supervise, the suit alleges. It provided "10 district schoolteachers to travel in fourteen separate rafts on a several hourslong whitewater rafting trip."

All parties allowed nearly 80 students, aged 11 and 12, to traverse down the river in rafts that had "no professional and certified" guides on board, according to the court filing. The suit adds that all parties failed to "view, observe, or trek the course ahead of time to learn about the existence of any obstacles in the water," the suit alleges.

The Sag Harbor school district does not comment on pending litigation, Nichols said in a statement issued to Newsday via email. But, the superintendent said, "we want to reiterate that the loss of Cesar remains a profound tragedy for our entire school community."

"Cesar was a valued and cherished member of our school family, and his passing left an immeasurable void in the lives of his classmates, teachers, staff, and all who knew him," Nichols added.

Hampton Jitney "was the transportation provider during the Sag Harbor School trip when this student tragically died," a spokesperson for the Southampton-based company said in an emailed statement. The spokesperson added said the company "cannot comment further on this matter due to the pending litigation."

The raft carrying Cesar was one of four rafts "occupied by multiple students and district schoolteachers" that "capsized and overturned" due to a "tree strainer in the water," according to the suit.

When his vessel overturned, the suit says, Cesar was thrown "into the cold, swirling, rapid waters of the Lehigh River with its dangerous currents caused by the tree strainer which pulled, suctioned, and vacuumed [his] head and body under the water, pinning him beneath its branches, trapping him, preventing him from resurfacing, and causing him to suffer extreme and unimaginable conscious pain and suffering for several minutes ...  and wrongful death by way of drowning."

Cesar and the four others on his raft were wearing life jackets, but the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission said it would review all safety equipment in use as part of its investigation into the death, Newsday previously reported.

Whitewater Rafting did not respond to Newsday’s request for comment on Thursday.