The District Attorney's office would determine if there was any negligence rising to the level of criminal activity in the boy's death at Kiley Middle School last Friday.
SPRINGFIELD – Were “negligence or recklessness” factors in the death of a 12-year-old boy last Friday during a swim class at M. Marcus Kiley Middle School? The Hampden District Attorney's office is investigating to see if either of these factors might have been involved.
The name of the sixth grade boy was still not released Thursday by law enforcement agencies or the School Department six days after the death. A School Department spokeswoman said the school system is not permitted to release personal information about a student.
Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said the investigation is ongoing, and his office is awaiting the results of an autopsy conducted Monday. The preliminary report stated that results are pending the return of certain testing that has been sent out by the local office of the State Medical Examiner, he said.
“The investigation revolves around whether or not there was negligence or recklessness that rose to the level of criminal activity,” Mastroianni said.
All information received thus far indicate the death was a drowning, “however there is no way I can say that conclusively without the benefit of an autopsy that will give us information regarding the health of the young person,” Mastroianni said.
There were approximately 45 students in the swim class at Kiley and two instructors, according to police. The boy was rushed to Baystate Medical Center after the incident shortly before 2:30 p.m., but was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Mastroianni said Lisa McHugh, deputy director of his office’s victim witness program, talked with family members of the student.
One reason was to explain the role the District Attorney’s office has in reviewing the facts and circumstances. He said the family was told it is standard practice to review facts and circumstances.
He said at the appropriate time, after the review he has to do from a legal point of view is over, he will give the family all the facts and circumstances they are interested in finding out. He would also make his findings public, he said.
Mastroianni said he would like to have all findings from the Medical Examiner’s Office before he makes findings, but if that is going to take as long as six months he could issue preliminary findings.
The family was offered services from the victim witness program which specializes in services for families who suffer “tragic, horrible, unexpected loss,” Mastroianni said.
His office does that a lot in cases where there are not necessarily going to be criminal charges but when his office is investigating, he said. Another instance where that is done is when someone is killed in a motor vehicle crash and his office is investigating, but there would not necessarily be charges.
“Out of absolute respect for the family and the situation that the family is in there is no information we are going to give out otherwise,” Mastroianni said.
More details coming on MassLive and in The Republican.
Staff writer Buffy Spencer contributed to this report.