What Happened to Jon Jon Jackson?
November 14, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Last June, 10-year-old Jon Jon Jackson died while taking a nap after being in the pool of the apartment complex where he lived for about 45 minutes. The cause of his death was determined to be “asphyxiation due to drowning.” His mother, Cassandra Jackson, spoke nationally about the dangers of secondary drowning, which is a secondary injury caused to the lung when even a small amount of water (a teaspoon) gets in the lungs. Jon Jon had attention deficit disorder and autism.
Today, The Post and Courier (Charleston) reported that a family friend, Saquan Meekins, has been charged with homicide by child abuse:
An investigator’s affidavit accuses Meekins of holding the youngster underwater at the deep end of the pool. Unnamed witnesses told police that he made statements to the effect of, “‘You’re going to learn how to swim, one way or the other,’” while directing profanity at the boy.
They described Jon Jon trying to stay above the water, grabbing floating objects, as Meekins kept throwing him back in. At one point, they recalled the boy saying, “I want to live; I don’t want to die.” Meekins, they asserted, replied with something like, “that’s what happens when you don’t try to swim.”
Jackson said her son, who was developmentally disabled and had a condition similar to mild autism, often made dramatic statements. Someone who didn’t know him, she said, could have taken the comment about dying out of context.
The charges against Meekins carry a possible prison sentence of 10 years to life.
Don’t know the facts here, and the profanity assertions don’t sound good.
BUT…TH says “I’m going to die!” really loudly, ALL THE TIME. He often does it in public and has often done it in the pool. He does think he’s going to die, even though there’s no imminent danger of it. He’ll also say it when he finally does something to himself that hurts him enough that he actually feels it.
I disagree with ’sink or swim’ instruction. The red cross had proper swimming classes for us in southern california when I was a kid, it was not traumatic.
If the allegations are true, may justice be served.
I was taught the sink or swim method, if that is a method, and now I’m afraid of deep water. Anyway, if I witnessed something like what happened here, I would have interfered and have said something–if this was true. Autism or not ,this boy was abused.
Wow what a turn of events on this story. Why is it now just coming out? It even was mentioned on Oprah.