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WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — A 6-year-old boy was hospitalized after nearly drowning at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) on Monday afternoon.
According to UDC’s police report, officers were dispatched to the university’s swimming pool around 1:05 p.m. when a staff member reported that a boy “was drowning and appeared unconscious.” Someone had found him unresponsive at the bottom of the swimming pool.
The university said that UDC police and DC Fire and EMS responded and took the boy, Adonis Jackson, to the hospital.
UDC said that Adonis was participating in the Nike Soccer Camp with Foursoccer, which uses the university’s athletic complex. Officials said that the camp’s organizers are separate from UDC.
The report said that around 30 kids were in the pool at the time of the incident for the camp.
According to the report, UDC’s Lifeguard Manager had left the university for lunch and returned after the boy had been found. He said that no lifeguard was on duty when the incident happened and told police that one of the summer camp’s leaders had admitted that the camp’s participants were allowed to go to the swimming pool at the end of each day’s activities.
The camp’s website advertised afternoon swimming as “fun, supervised sessions” inside UDC’s pool.
According to the report, one camp counselor went into the water to try to rescue Adonis but couldn’t get him out. A head coach was able to get him out of the pool and start administering CPR until first responders arrived.
Paramedics stabilized Adonis and transported him to Children’s National Hospital.
Dominique Calhoun, an attorney representing Adonis’s family, said Tuesday that the child was stable but remained sedated and intubated.
“He is somewhat responsive to music. He has grabbed his mother’s hand,” Calhoun said. “We’re thankful that we have seen some activity from him, but there is obviously no talking, no major movements, no major gestures—just those slight things that give you hope.”
Calhoun said the family has been told Adonis was underwater for more than two minutes. He said the family still does not know how Adonis ended up at the bottom of the pool or how the children were allowed to enter without a lifeguard.
“What they do know is that they have a 6-year-old boy currently in the hospital, sedated with tubes in his mouth, unable to be himself.”
UDC said FourSoccer LLC programs, coordinates and facilitates the camp, which operates independently from the university. The university closed the pool while it reviews the incident, but said the soccer camp continues to operate under its independent organizers.
A spokesperson for Nike’s US Sports Camps also described FourSoccer as the camp’s independent operator.
“We are in contact with them as they and the appropriate authorities review what occurred,” a US Sports Camps spokesperson said. “We are not able to comment on specifics at this time.”
FourSoccer had not responded to questions about who authorized the children to enter the pool without a lifeguard and who was responsible for supervising them in the water.
The UDC police report listed the investigation as open.
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