Santiago de los Caballeros / Santo Domingo – November 30, 2025 – What was meant to be a celebratory reward for straight-A grades ended in unimaginable grief when 11-year-old Haitian student Stephora Anne-Mircie Joseph drowned in an unsupervised hotel pool during a school excursion on November 14.
The sixth-grader at the private Instituto Leonardo Da Vinci in Santiago was one of several top-performing students taken to Hacienda Los Caballos in Gurabo — despite a 15-year-old nationwide ban on aquatic school trips issued by the Dominican Ministry of Education in 2009.
According to the family’s formal complaint, no lifeguards were present, no first-aid equipment was available, and teachers provided inadequate supervision. Stephora drowned in minutes.
Her mother, Lovelie Joseph Raphael, rushed to a local clinic after receiving a call that her daughter was “vomiting water,” only to be sent hours later to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences in Santo Domingo to identify and retrieve her child’s body — without security footage, a preliminary autopsy report, or any explanation from authorities.
Two weeks of silence from the school followed the tragedy. A public statement of condolences was finally posted on November 30.
Swift Official Response — But Questions Remain
Dominican Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso has ordered prosecutors and the National Directorate for Children, Adolescents, and Families (CONANI) to fast-track a criminal investigation into possible manslaughter, negligence, and violation of the long-standing aquatic-excursion ban.
The Regional Director of Education confirmed the school failed to follow safety protocols and has launched an internal probe. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Works immediately closed Hacienda Los Caballos after inspectors found no rescue equipment, no trained personnel, and multiple safety violations.
A Mother’s Fight for Answers
Accompanied by attorneys Mena & Salazar, Lovelie Joseph Raphael filed formal charges alleging “extreme negligence” by both the school and the venue.
“We just want the truth,” she told reporters outside the Attorney General’s office. “Show us the video. Tell us why my daughter, who earned this trip with perfect grades, came home in a coffin.”
Broader Outrage and Solidarity
The case has ignited fury among Dominican parents and civil-society groups, who accuse authorities of a “wall of silence” that breeds suspicion of a cover-up. Haitian community leaders and human rights advocates have rallied behind the family, pointing to patterns of institutional indifference — and sometimes overt discrimination — faced by Haitian immigrants and their children in the Dominican Republic.
As the investigation accelerates, one thing is clear: Stephora’s bright future was stolen in a preventable tragedy that should never have happened.
Rest in peace, little scholar. The fight for justice has only begun.
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