Family Devastated After 12-Year-Old Boy Dies on School Field Trip

A New York family is mourning an unimaginable loss after a 12-year-old boy died during a school rafting trip in Pennsylvania’s Poconos.

Cesar Albarracin Guncay, a sixth grader at Pierson Middle School in Sag Harbor, was on a class trip May 27 when his inflatable raft capsized on the Lehigh River.

What was supposed to be an exciting four-hour rafting adventure turned tragic when several rafts reached a fork in the river where a fallen tree had created a dangerous obstruction known as a “strainer.”

Students told the East Hampton Star that the group had been warned to avoid the tree, but strong currents pulled multiple rafts toward it.

Cesar was in the second raft with a teacher, two boys and one girl when the boat was swept toward the fallen tree. The raft collided with another boat, then capsized, throwing everyone into the water.

As others resurfaced, Cesar did not.

A helmeted kayak guide who had safely taken the left side of the fork rushed back to help, but he was also pulled into the water and injured.

“He hit his head going in,” an employee with Whitewater Rafting Adventures told the outlet.

The employee said the guide had been trying to enter the strainer backward to help push the rafts away when he was knocked out and badly hurt.

According to the Star, the students were not wearing helmets.

The chaos continued as another raft carrying six girls and a teacher hit the tree and capsized. One student’s mother told the outlet that three girls were pulled under and had a “near drowning experience.”

A fourth raft carrying seven boys was also pulled into the right side of the fork and capsized.

Some students clung to a nearby log as guides searched around the fallen tree. A witness said one guide suffered cuts on his arms while trying to find Cesar.

Two students helped classmates get to safety and onto other rafts before the group continued downstream. Some children reportedly did not realize until later that their classmate had never resurfaced.

Around 6 p.m., emergency responders with the Lehighton Fire Department’s dive team recovered Cesar from the water, according to the coroner’s office.

Carbon County chief deputy coroner Jason Smith pronounced him dead shortly before 7 p.m. His death was ruled an accidental drowning.

The students had left school around 6 a.m. that morning and returned home to Long Island around 2 a.m. the next day.

One parent told the East Hampton Star that Pierson Middle School principal Brittany Carriero was crying before the bus arrived and kept saying, “I’m so sorry.”

Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Robert Drake said his department is working with the Sag Harbor School District and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission as the investigation continues.

“I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the student’s family, the school community and all those affected by this unimaginable tragedy,” Drake said.

Hilary and Steve Bretzik, owners of Whitewater Rafting Adventures, told the Star that their team was heartbroken.

“Our entire team is heartbroken by what occurred, and our first concern is for the family and friends of our guest,” they said.

They added that the company is continuing to gather information and cooperating with investigators.

Sag Harbor Union Free School District Superintendent Jeff Nichols also addressed the tragedy in a letter to families.

“There are no words to adequately express the depth of this loss,” Nichols wrote.

He called Cesar a “cherished member” of the school community and said his absence would leave “an irreplaceable space in our classrooms, our hallways and our lives.”

Cesar’s friends and family gathered June 3 to lay him to rest. Mourners wore blue, his favorite color, in his honor.

His cousin, Ashley Buestan, told Patch that blue felt like the color that best represented him.

“He really liked soccer. He was also a very creative little guy,” Buestan said. “He had paintings and drawings everywhere.”

She said Cesar loved to run and was “super, super, super fast,” one of the fastest in his class. She also remembered him as an animal lover who often cared for her dogs when the family traveled.

“He was like my little brother,” Buestan said. “He lived with me for seven years.”

Cesar came to the United States from Ecuador shortly before turning 7. His father, Cesar Albarracin, had moved to the U.S. years earlier for financial reasons, and the two were reunited after spending about six years apart, Cesar’s mother, Delia Guncay, told Tu Prensa Local.

Buestan said Cesar had been thrilled about the rafting trip because it was the kind of adventure he had not had growing up in Ecuador.

“He loved trying new things, going on adventures,” she said. “Going on this trip, he was so excited.”

A GoFundMe for the family described Cesar as a “kind, handsome and athletic” sixth grader, a friend to many and a beloved neighborhood kid in Sag Harbor.

As of Friday, the fundraiser had raised more than $253,000 to support his family.

Buestan said Cesar’s parents are devastated but have felt the love of the community around them.

“I would tell him that he was very loved, not just by me but by the community,” she said. “And that he will always have a piece of my heart with him.”