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Apr 1, 2008 9:19 pm US/Central
Family Blames Lapse In DISD Policy For Teen Death
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
The father of a Dallas student who died on a school trip last week says he is angry.
James Kings was killed in an apparent hit and run accident on I35 in Austin.
James was a student at Booker T. Washington School of Performing and Visual Arts. By all accounts, he was a very talented drummer.
His family said a lapse in district policy may have lead to his death.
"He was the kind of son that I think anyone would want," said James Kings, the boy's father. "He never gave us any trouble, was always humble, always polite."
That's why Kings knows something went terribly wrong the night James died. The 17-year-old was performing with his school's jazz ensemble in Houston and Austin.
James was apparently with some classmates in one of their hotel rooms after curfew. Something caused him to run out onto the highway. He was hit by a vehicle and killed.
"There were people who were supposed to be on hand to make sure those things didn't happen," said Kings.
Austin police are investigating what happened, but Kings' theory is that his son was drugged.
"I just don't think that he was behaving in a way that was consistent with the way I know him to always be or that others know him to always be," said Kings.
He believes the chaperones knew the students were breaking the rules.
"If I blame anything, I blame a system, the absence of a proper system of accountability," he said.
Kings said he hopes Dallas school district officials learn from this tragedy and revise their policies accordingly.
"This is not a vindictive thing, but I want to make sure that no one else's child, including my own, because I have one other one still there, ever goes through something like this again," said Kings.
A D.I.S.D. spokesperson said there were six chaperones on the trip - a sufficient number for the size of the group. She said since the investigation is on-going, she cannot comment on the allegations.
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