School made epileptic teen swim in P.E. despite warnings, suit says. Then she drowned
For 53 minutes, Alaina Dildine was underwater in the pool of her Indiana high school without anyone realizing.
“Fighting for her life,” the teen experienced a seizure as her head dipped below the surface of the Whiteland Community High School pool, according to details of a federal lawsuit. There was no lifeguard on duty.
The seizure, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana, was the latest in a series of similar occurrences for the epileptic teenager. Prior to the May 16, 2023, incident, the girl’s mother emailed Alaina’s P.E. teacher and asked if she could forgo swimming due to medical reasons.
Those emails went ignored, attorneys said.
Days after that request, Alaina was discovered at the bottom of the pool by a student in the next class, according to the lawsuit. She was pulled out of the water, but she could not be revived.
Alaina Dildine, known for offering a smile to everyone she met, was dead at 15.
Now, her parents have filed a lawsuit against the Indianapolis-area school district and the P.E. teacher, among others, arguing that Alaina’s death was preventable.
“Forcing a student with a known seizure disorder into a swimming pool with no lifeguard and no written safety rules, policies or procedures, and then failing to supervise that student, resulted in (Alaina Dildine) being left at the bottom of the pool for 53 minutes,” the lawsuit said.
McClatchy News has reached out to the Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation and is awaiting a response.
“The school and its counsel are aware of the pre-suit allegations and have worked diligently with counsel to resolve the dispute. Beyond that, we are unable to comment on threatened or pending litigation,” the school district said in a statement to WRTV.
The events leading to May 16
Alaina was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2015, and school officials had been aware of the diagnosis since she was in middle school, according to the lawsuit.
Students at Whiteland Community High School are required to participate in a swimming unit during their first of two mandated semesters of physical education, attorneys said.
But because Alaina already experienced six bouts of seizure activity at school or on the bus during the 2023 spring semester, her mother had concerns about her participating in the swimming unit, the lawsuit says. The most recent of those came May 8, when Alaina had a seizure during her P.E. class.
Victoria Dildine, Alaina’s mother, emailed her daughter’s P.E. teacher on May 11 and May 12, asking if Alaina could participate in the class without swimming, according to the lawsuit. Those emails went unanswered.
The lawsuit cites the American Academy of Pediatrics, which states children with epilepsy “have a 7.5 to 10 times greater risk of drowning” than other children.
What happened during the P.E. class?
Students were swimming in six lanes of the pool May 16, according to the lawsuit. A man employed as an “instructional assistance and lifeguard” was instructing four beginner swimmers, while the P.E. teacher was tasked with watching the other 20 students.
Neither of the two were operating as a traditional lifeguard, violating Indiana safety laws, the lawsuit states.
Multiple swimmers were jumping into the water as Alaina went under at 10:18 a.m., attorneys allege, citing video from the pool.
“Video footage showed that (Alaina) was having what appeared to be a seizure, with her arms clenched and her legs moving as if on a bicycle,” according to the lawsuit. “After a few minutes, (she) slid down the incline under the bulkhead into the deeper end of the pool.”
The students were eventually dismissed from class, all while Alaina was struggling underwater. The two instructors never took a head count of the class, nor did they inspect the pool to ensure everyone had safely exited, the lawsuit states.
At 11:11 a.m., 53 minutes after Alaina went underwater, she was discovered by a student in the following class, attorneys say. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Johnson County Coroner’s Office ruled she drowned “with a seizure as a contributing factor.”
Alaina’s parents file suit
The school district, superintendent, high school, P.E. teacher and swimming instructor were all named in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, Feb. 14.
The lawsuit is seeking monetary damages, including medical costs, funeral and burial expenses and counseling costs.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Victoria Dildine told WTHR. “It should not have happened. Those people that were supposed to be keeping her safe also deserve to be accountable because that didn’t happen that day. They weren’t even doing the bare minimum at our school, and we thought they were.”
The decision to file suit came after the Johnson County prosecutor’s office opted to not file charges against the school employees, WISH reported in July. Officials said no laws were broken.
“It is not the function of this office, however, to determine whether any negligence on behalf of school officials contributed to this tragedy. Such a determination would need to be made in the civil justice system,” Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said, according to WISH.
In January, the school district announced new policies and procedures for the pools at the high school. WTHR reported the district brought in an expert on swimming pool safety.
“While the Dildines are relieved the school district recently released a draft of new pool safety procedures, they want to know why many of the recommended commonsense safety practices were not required before Alaina died,” an attorney representing the Dildines told WXIN. “Complying with state law by having a lifeguard on duty, assigning students a buddy while swimming, and counting the students after they exit the pool should have been obvious to school officials. Instead, they forced a student with seizures to get into a pool without a lifeguard, failed to watch her, and then left her at the bottom of the pool for 53 minutes.”
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