13-year-old Daniel Persaud, who drowned in Jamaica Bay on Friday, remembered as "One amazing kid"
NEW YORK -- Family and friends are mourning the deaths the deaths of two 13-year-old boys who drowned early Friday morning in Jamaica Bay.
Now, the father of one of those children is questioning why school officials didn't alert him sooner that his son wasn't in class. He spoke with CBS2's Astrid Martinez on Sunday.
"Every time I'm by myself, I go in the house ... it's like, I can't handle it," Brith Persaud said.
Fighting back tears, Brith Persaud gathered the strength to share stories of his son, Daniel Persaud.
"Thirteen years old. One amazing kid. I got no complaints. That's the first time that you ever make an incident like that, it caused his life," Brith Persaud said.
Described as shy and happy, Daniel Persaud was looking forward to summer. On Friday, his father said he decided to skip class and go to the beach with friends in Queens.
Police say Daniel Persaud and his best friend, 13-year-old Ryan Wong, were standing on a sandbar, when they suddenly became submerged in the water.
Daniel Persaud didn't know how to swim.
Brith Persaud was mourning his son when he received a recorded message from the school that his son was not in class.
"They said he was absent at 7 in the afternoon. That's a long wait because if there were calls at 10 in the morning, I could have saved my son's life that day. I have a tracker on his phone, so I can pick up exactly where he's at, and call him and pick him up," Brith Persaud said.
They family wonders if that message came in sooner could Daniel Persaud's death have been prevented.
"Because the kids clearly met up at the school and then left. We feel like if the truancy was there, you know, they would have caught them and we would have been aware that they were not in school earlier," sister Vineeta said.
CBS2 reached out to the Department of Education, but did not immediately hear back.
The families of both boys are planning to hold a vigil on Monday at 7 p.m. at Jamaica Bay, where the boys drowned.
