NORTH BENNINGTON — The Family of a nine-year-old who drowned while attending summer camp in Lake Paran last July has settled a pending wrongful death case with Lake Paran’s parent organization after representatives from the organization reached out to the family to end the case.
In a joint statement from Paran Recreation Inc. and Jonathan and Kate Cooper regarding the death of June Cooper, released by family attorney David Silver, Paran Recreation acknowledged responsibility for the incident last July.
Here is that formal statement;
“Paran Recreation, Inc. (“Lake Paran”) accepts responsibility for the drowning death of June Cooper on July 19, 2024. Lake Paran reached out to the Coopers directly to express their deep sorrow and regret for their failure to protect June. The Coopers recognize the importance of Lake Paran to their community, and it was important for them to have June’s legacy be positive and lasting. Towards that end, the Coopers are gratified that Lake Paran has worked with them to establish appropriate safety policies and protocols in order to prevent this tragedy from happening again.”
According to the Cooper family’s attorney, Paran Recreation, the organization that oversees events, activities, and the summer camp at the lake, approached the family to settle a possible wrongful death case before it was filed on behalf of the Cooper Family, naming Paran Recreation as the defendant.
“Obviously, for Jonathan and Kate and their daughter, words are really inadequate to describe how devastated they are by grief at the loss of their beautiful nine-year-old daughter, June. Anyone who has a child can’t even imagine what they have gone through and continue to go through. That being said, they were gratified that the process was started by Lake Paran, who reached out to them to express their deep sorrow and regret. They were willing to do whatever they could to make amends. The family really appreciated that.”
Silver said that the Cooper family values Lake Paran as an important North Bennington amenity for the whole community and that they didn’t want to do anything that would destroy or damage that.
“This settlement addresses their main concern, which is that the lake adopts various safety protocols that we worked together with Lake Paran to come up with.”
Silver declined to name any new safety protocols that will or have been adopted.
The Banner reached out directly to Alisa DelTufo, Board Chair of Paran Recreations, for comment on the settlement and any clarity she could share on new safety protocols now in place that would directly impact children swimming at Lake Paran, especially during summer camp sessions. Mrs. DelTufo emailed us back with a statement and a promise to discuss the safety protocols at a later date.
""We are deeply grateful that we were able to reach an agreement with the Cooper family," Alisa Del Tufo wrote in her return email.
On Friday, July 19, 2024, at 12:12 p.m., the police Communications Center received a call about a missing 9-year-old at Lake Paran in North Bennington. It was reported that the child was last seen at approximately 10:30 a.m., near the water.
Bennington police officers, North Bennington Fire Department, and Bennington Rescue Squad members were dispatched to Lake Paran. The North Bennington Fire Department arrived, and personnel entered the water, along with a citizen in a canoe, to search for the child, who was eventually located unresponsive under the water.
The police said that first responders performed lifesaving measures on the scene.
June Cooper, a 9-year-old, a summer day-camper participating in the camp’s “Wet and Wild” event the week of July 15-19th, was rushed to the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center on the 19th, where lifesaving measures were continued. She was later pronounced dead. An autopsy listed her death as an accidental drowning.
Two separate sources associated with Lake Paran and several parents of children there that day at camp told the Banner at the time, that lifeguards at the lake are usually scheduled for duty between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. each day. The sources stated that some kids were participating in a “seaweed pull contest” that morning to see who could pull the most seaweed from the bottom of the lake. That group reportedly included June.
Several sources told the Banner that the kids were standing in chest-deep water and grabbing weeds as part of the Wet and Wild “seaweed pull.” According to those witnesses, including a town official and many who wished to remain anonymous, the kids, including June, were in the water before any lifeguards were on duty.
One of the children in the water that day, part of the group that included June Cooper, told his parent that one of his friends had informed one of the middle-school-aged counselors that he thought June was missing. According to what the child reported to his mother, that warning was ignored.
A Bennington Police press release that evening stated that the Bennington PD was alerted to a missing child at 12:12 p.m., over 90 minutes after June went missing.
After a lengthy investigation, Bennington State’s Attorney Erica Marthage announced in January that her office declined to press charges in the incident. In an interview with the Banner then, Marthage confirmed that any level of negligence, lack of supervision, or any possible wrongdoing on behalf of any individual at the scene that day did not rise to the level of a chargeable offense.
“There was nothing here that indicated that this rose to the level of criminal negligence,” Marthage said. “Whether there was some other level of negligence, I can't say.”
The amount of any settlement remains confidential as of press time. The settlement is currently in front of the Bennington Civil Court for a judge’s approval. The settlement will then move on to the Probate Court for approval as well.
There is no mention of a 2025 summer camp at Lake Paran on either their Facebook page or official website as of press time.
