North High teen drowns in PE class

Sixteen-year-old Annie Lee cannot picture life without her younger brother Kwong.

She remembers the 15-year-old as a kind-hearted kid who loved to play basketball, was never in trouble and was “as close as you could be” to his family.

Just a few hours after Kwong Lee died of an apparent drowning during a physical education class Monday afternoon at Davenport North High School, Annie wanted to tell everyone about her brother.

Crying softly, she said her parents, who speak little English, want answers about his death.

“They are devastated. My mom won’t eat, she’s just crying and crying,” she said. “My brother was only a kid and he’s dead. He died at school where you are supposed to be safe and we don’t understand that.”

Davenport police officials said Lee, a freshman, was discovered lying at the bottom of a pool at the North Family Y, which sits adjacent to the high school campus along 53rd Street.

He was in the midst of the first swimming class of the year, and the students were getting acclimated to the water, police said.

“The instructor gave them directions on pool safety and what was expected of them,” Capt. David Struckman said. “He told them to get in the water to get used to it because it is pretty cold since it is used for competitive swimming.”

Shortly thereafter, police said, the students were in the 5-foot-deep area when one of them spotted the boy at the bottom of the 11-foot-deep part of the pool.

“One of the students tried to bring the young man up, but couldn’t, and the instructor jumped in and got him and tried to perform CPR,” Struckman said. “It was such a tragic accident.”

According to police reports, Lee was unresponsive when he was pulled from the water. Paramedics tried to revive him at the scene, but they were unsuccessful.

Lee was transported to Trinity at Terrace Park hospital in Bettendorf, where he was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m., police said.

The Lee family, which includes a 12-year-old sister, moved to Davenport a little more than a year ago from the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

Annie Lee, a sophomore at North, said she learned about her brother’s death after guidance counselors pulled her from a fourth-period class, telling her Kwong “had an accident in gym class.”

“Nobody had answers, but I found out at the hospital that he died,” she said.

The girl said neither she nor her brother could swim.

In fact, just two hours before the accident, the girl said she refused to get in the water during her physical education class.

“There are about 25 students and one teacher and one lifeguard,” she said. “No one asked me if I could swim, and I did not want to get in the water. I didn’t care if I failed gym.”

Davenport School District officials said that while the incident remains under investigation and pending an evaluation by the Y staff, the pool will remain closed.

North High also is suspending swim classes until the investigation is complete, school officials said.

Counselors trained in crisis response were at the school Monday afternoon and will be available to students and families during the coming days. 

“At this time, the hearts of the staff and students at North High and the entire district go out to the family of this student,” district officials said in a news release.

Annie Lee said her family plans to meet with school officials today, adding that they want to know how the accident happened.

As for how her family will pick up the pieces, she is not sure.

They plan to have the burial in Brooklyn.

“We’re never going to get back up — not without my brother. He meant too much to everyone,” she said.

Rachelle Treiber can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or rtreiber@qctimes.com.