SLIDELL, La. (WGNO) — A mother in Palm Lake is warning parents ahead of Memorial Day weekend and the summer season to practice water safety days after her 15-year-old son died in a drowning incident.
The incident happened directly behind the family’s home, just days before the teen’s birthday.
“My 7-year-old called at about 4:31 p.m. exactly, and he’s like ‘Mom, Dad and Jeron are in the water and Jeron is drowning,’ and I’m like ‘What?’ I didn’t even hang up the phone I just dropped the phone,” said the teen’s mother, Termaine Simmons. “I was in my nightgown, and I broke out the back door and I went out there and by the time I made it from the house to downstairs to the deck, my baby was gone.”
Simmons says Jeron Magee was playing football with his younger brother who at one point, tossed the ball into the lake. Jeron dove into the water to retrieve it but never resurfaced.
“With him being as tall as he was, I think that’s what really made him decide he was going to jump, is because he thought he could stand up,” Simmons said.
However, the water was too deep for Jeron to swim back to safety. Simmons says the teen’s little brother watched as Jeron tried to stay afloat.
A team of divers was later able to locate Jeron, but it was too late.
“He was the gentlest of them all. He was the kindest. She would be in the room studying, I would be sick with a migraine, he’s playing nurse between both of us. He would cook, he would do it all for me,” said Simmons.
Jeron’s family described the teen as a kindhearted, gentle, honor roll student who had dreams of becoming a chef.
“He was going to come up with the right ingredients to make the right chicken sandwich to conquer the world. That was his thing. He wanted to be a personal chef for celebrities, travel the world. Mom, Dad, I’m going take care of y’all. That’s the kind of kid he was,” Simmons said.
His mother says he would even look out for the younger kids, often walking them home from the bus.
Simmons is urging parents to practice swimming safety with their children and to keep a close eye on them when they’re in the water.
“One-time swimming lessons, they don’t work. Saying it’s true they’ll know how to swim for the rest of their life, it’s not. He had lessons as a young kid. You need to prepare them for anything,” Simmons said.
The family is now working to get a scholarship created under Jeron’s name for a culinary program.
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