Body of Toronto student, 15, recovered

Youth had been swimming on school-run trip

• The body of a 15- year- old boy was pulled out of a lake almost a day after he disappeared underwater while swimming on a school- run camping trip in Algonquin Park, Ontario Provincial Police said.

Divers with the force’s underwater r escue unit found his body just before 3: 30 p. m. Wednesday in Big Trout Lake, Const. Catherine Yarmel told reporters.

Yarmel said police would not be identifying the teen, but his father i dentified him as Jeremiah Perry in an interview with a Toronto TV station earlier in the day.

The boy had been on a summer school outdoor educational program trip with about 37 other students to Algonquin Park since Sunday and was due to r eturn t he f ollowing Friday, said Ryan Bird, a spokesman for the Toronto District School Board.

He had been s wi mming with 22 other students when he disappeared underwater i n Big Trout Lake Tuesday evening and did not resurface.

Provincial police were contacted and began a search and recover mission on Tuesday, Bird said.

By Wednesday, this included the use of underwater search- and- recovery divers, an emergency response team and a float plane from the Ministry of Natural Resources to evacuate the remaining students from the park.

But the float plane suffered an unspecified mechanical issue, police said, and was disabled.

“We’re hoping … to try to bring them back as soon as possible,” said Shari Schwartz- Maltz, a TDSB spokeswoman.

“They’re in a relatively isolated part of Algonquin Park, I think it’s about a day portage ( to the park’s western gate), so in order to avoid that they’re finding a way to get them out to a reception area.”

Schwartz- Maltz said that there would have been three lifeguards watching the boy and the 22 other students who had been swimming in Big Trout Lake when he disappeared underwater. All students on the trip were also required to pass a swimming test.

The students have started to make their way back home, and TDSB is working to have counsellors meet the students when they come out of the park, she said.

The boy’s father, Joshua Anderson, s ai d t hat he thought the school would have their children’s safety under control.

“That was the least on our minds thinking about the safety because we know the school is supposed to have proper supervision, proper protocol, everything in place,” the boy’s father told CP24.

Anderson said his 17- year- old son was also on the school camping trip.