The family of two New Jersey teenagers who drowned in a public school pool in 2022 has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit for $26 million, their attorney said Wednesday.
Chu Ming Zheng, 19, and Jack Jiang, 16, drowned in the Lincoln Community School pool in Bayonne in June of that year. Their family sued the Bayonne Board of Education, alleging the pool was understaffed and ill-equipped to handle an emergency.
“Obviously, everything pales in comparison to the loss of these two children,” family attorney Darryl Zaslow told NJ.com. “But they realize the boys are not coming back, and the family has decided to settle.”
Zheng and Jiang were learning to swim at the pool when they stumbled into the deep end and began drowning, according to the family and video from the scene.
While three lifeguards were supposed to be on duty at the time, only two were on the scene and one acted nonchalantly toward the boys’ plight, the lawsuit said.
“The lifeguards not only failed to act — they lied to the police about their actions and staffing levels that night, apparently unaware there was surveillance video,” the family’s attorneys said in a statement earlier this year. “The facts are shocking.”
Earlier in the legal process, the family rejected a $14 million settlement offer, Zaslow told NJ.com. The $26 million agreement was reached on Nov. 13.
The Bayonne Board of Education has not publicly commented on the case.
Zheng was a freshman at the University of Miami, while Jiang attended Bayonne High School.
