Death Of Haitian Student, 11, On DR School Trip Ignites Fury

On Dec. 6, the Public Prosecution Office in the Dominican Republic announced that four employees of the Leonardo Da Vinci Institute in Santiago were arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 11‑year‑old Stephora Anne-Mircie Joseph, a Haitian national who drowned during a “reward trip” for high-achieving students on Nov. 14.

The detained are Yris del Carmen Reyes Adame, the school’s administrative director; Gisela González, general coordinator; Francisca Josefina Tavarez Vélez, a guidance counselor; and Vilma Altagracia Vargas Morel, a secondary‑level coordinator.

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Authorities say video evidence shows “extreme negligence” by the chaperones assigned to supervise 87 students at Hacienda Los Caballos, a ranch in Gurabo, just north of Santiago. The private ranch, which is not listed as prohibited for school activities, also has a pool, violating the 2009 Ministry of Education decree that bans school outings to beaches, rivers, and unsecured pools. According to the investigation, there were no lifeguards present, life jackets were not required, the pool’s depth was not assessed beforehand, and the ranch also lacked any medical staff or safety equipment on the premises.

Stephora’s mother, Lovelie Raphael Joseph, 43, said that her daughter did not know how to swim.

On the morning of the outing, Joseph dropped Stephora off at 7:15 a.m. to join the other students. Then at 11:30 a.m., she received a call informing her that her daughter was not well and asking which hospital Stephora should be taken to. A few minutes later, she got a WhatsApp message telling her to come to the ranch. However, when she arrived, she said no other students or school officials were there. Joseph only saw an ambulance and the police, who would not allow her to see her daughter because she was “receiving medical attention,” she told the Miami Herald.

Four hours later, a local authority finally approached the distraught mother and said, “Tomorrow, go pick [up] her corpse” from the morgue.

Joseph said that day, neither the authorities nor school officials provided her with any real details surrounding Stephora’s death. “My daughter left school alive. They gave her back to me dead,” she said.

Wading In The Water For Answers

Stephora’s death was initially reported as a “drowning accident” by local newspapers in the DR. The Joseph family shared that Dominican Minister of Public Health Daniel Rivera later provided them with a preliminary autopsy indicating “mechanical asphyxiation,” meaning her lungs filled with water. He also apologized to Joseph for the “unacceptable treatment” she received at the ranch.

On Nov. 28, exactly two weeks after Stephora’s death, Dominican authorities announced a fast-tracked criminal investigation, acknowledging “shortcomings in the initial handling of the case by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Santiago.” The news came the same weekend the Leonardo da Vinci Institute released its first public statement on Nov. 29. Stephora’s death “leaves a deep and indelible mark,” they stated without offering any further information about what happened. The Joseph family has also filed a formal complaint alleging negligence, lack of safety protocols, and a lack of transparency.

“All I want is justice. I want justice because I don’t know what happened to my child. I am trying to understand what happened so I can find justice for her,” expressed Joseph.

Despite the recent arrests, details about exactly what happened in the pool that morning still remain unclear. Furthermore, no public witness testimony or surveillance video has yet been released publicly. After weeks of public outcry demanding justice and answers, the recent arrests should serve as some form of consolation … But, frankly, the entire case feels sleazy—devoid of urgency, transparency, and basic human empathy.

“We Are Alive”

Some Dominican journalists have also caught a whiff of something fishy, including Delvis Durán and Esteban Rosario, who reported claims that three wealthy classmates allegedly assaulted Stephora in the pool and drowned her. They say the motive may have been racially motivated following classmates’ bullying and jealousy. However, these claims remain unconfirmed by authorities.

For four years, Stephora, who had just turned 11 on Nov. 5, excelled in her studies at the Leonardo Da Vinci Institute. She was beloved by teachers and students alike for her precocious personality. She loved soccer and part-time modeling, her mother describing the young girl as “an extraordinary child, superintelligent.”

She was also multilingual, speaking Haitian Kreyol, French, English, and Spanish; the latter language is showcased in the video below, taken just weeks before Stephora’s death. During one of her modeling sessions, she wrote an essay about equality, mutual respect, and self-love despite one’s imperfections. In the eerily apt speech, she spoke with confidence, wisdom, and foresight far beyond her youth. The poignancy of her message, the irony of her words, and the reality of her final destiny brought me to tears.

“Every girl is different, and every difference is a form of self-love. We are all unique, every girl in her own way. We don’t have to be the same. We are perfect just as we are, and simply by being ourselves, we are alive,” she recited with grace and an angelic smile.

Sticks And Stones But … Words Do Hurt

But despite and probably because of all of Stephora’s impressive accolades, she was envied by many of her classmates and also the victim of bullying.

In fact, just weeks before her death, Stephora came home in tears, saying, “Mom, I want to change my skin color,” Joseph recalled, according to The Haitian Times. When she asked her why, Stephora said classmates at school called her a “dirty Black girl.”

Stephora was a beautiful young girl, an unambiguously monoracial Black girl. Her lips were full; her nose, bulbous; her skin, richly melanated. And crowning her ancestral face was a full head of coiled hair. Not only was Stephora unambiguously Black, but she was also Haitian.

And please spare me with any comments about colorism, featurism, or texturism because I mentioned and truthfully described Stephora’s skin tone, facial features, and hair. This is not about any of that BS. This is about being honest, seeking answers, and uncovering the truth.

The truth is, Stephora was likely envied by other students for her myriad of gifts and reviled for her outward appearance of confidence. What’s worse, she was Black and Haitian. This made her an easy target at a school where, at least according to the photos on Da Vinci’s official website and Facebook, the student body is mostly fair-skinned or racially ambiguous, i.e., the idealistic image of “Dominican.”

What’s Beneath Those Murky Waters?

According to Edwin Paraison, a Haitian rights advocate in the Dominican Republic, Haitian children are often victims of bullying in school. At the same time, their Dominican counterparts are the recipients of anti-Haitian messaging.

“What are children hearing? They are being bombarded with a lot of negativity about the presence of Haitians, and what’s happening in Haiti,” he said. “In the relations they have among themselves. They are reproducing what they hear in the media and [from] adults.”

Not only do Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, but the two countries are also inextricably and immortally interwined by history and present-day realities. The relationship between Haiti and the DR is complex, ranging from cooperative, combative, contentious, and compassionate, deeply rooted in colonialism and deliberately divided by race and language.

So, as a journalist and scholar of the Black diaspora, I would be remiss—no, irresponsible—to think that Stephora’s race and nationality may not factor into her cause of death or how the case is being handled.

However, the director of the Ministry of Education in Santiago, Pedro Pablo Martehe, has denied that racism or prejudice were factors in the case, saying, “students, regardless of nationality, receive the same treatment and rights.”

If based on video footage, why did the arrests of the school’s faculty take more than a month? The arrests only focus on the adults and bureaucratic shortcomings. But if there is any truth to the rumors that Stephora was deliberately drowned by students from affluent families, the surveillance must be made public. Justice for Stephora demands it.

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