The family of a 14-year-old girl who drowned after a swim practice in Hillsboro, Oregon has filed a $70 million lawsuit against the city, school district and pool cover businesses, citing wrongful death as a result of negligence.
14-year-old Nabila Maazouz, an Oregon Episcopal School freshman, was found dead under a pool cover at the city of Hillsboro’s Shute Park Aquatic & Recreation Center after a Liberty High School swim team practice November 20, 2019.
Liberty High School coaches had instructed swimmers to cover the pool with heavy covers that create suction when rolled onto water, the lawsuit said.
Maazouz and several of her teammates grabbed a pool cover and swam with it to the deep end of the pool, then swam under the cover back to the front end, the lawsuit said. Maazouz and other swimmers then grabbed a second cover and brought it to the deep end, leaving it next to the first cover.
They swam back under the second cover, but Maazouz did not resurface, the lawsuit said.
The swimmers continued to cover the pool and left with their coaches once they were finished, turning the lights off, according to the lawsuit.
Nabila’s mother, Patricia Maazouz, was waiting in the parking lot. She noticed swimmers leaving the building without her daughter and went inside to ask coaches and pool staff about her daughter, the lawsuit said.
Nabila Maazouz was later found dead in the deep end of the pool, under the covers.
The lawsuit alleges the ThermaGard pool covers were “defective and unreasonably dangerous,” allowing Maazouz to become trapped underneath. The covers also violated industry standards for safety and fell short of pool cover labeling requirements, the lawsuit said.
ThermaGard’s manufacturer, Universal Filtration Inc., as well as its seller, The Pool and Spa House, are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit also cites the Hillsboro School District, city of Hillsboro and the city’s parks and recreation department for allowing the use of the pool cover, not having lifeguards on duty, not training employees on how to safely cover the pool and not noticing that Maazouz did not resurface with the other team members, among other allegations.
“Our hearts remain with the Maazouz family and everyone in our community who has been devastated by the tragic death of Nabila,” city spokesperson Patrick Preston said in a statement to the Oregonian/OregonLive. “The City of Hillsboro is committed to caring for the safety and well-being of all community members at all City facilities.”
Hillsboro School District spokesperson Beth Graser said Maazouz’s “death was a tragedy that we are all still grieving.”
“Our hearts and thoughts continue to go out to her family and all who knew her,” Graser said.
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