Overview:
Two weeks after 11-year-old Haitian student Stephora Joseph drowned during a school trip in Santiago, Dominican authorities have fast-tracked a criminal investigation. Her family has filed a formal complaint alleging negligence, lack of safety protocols, and a lack of transparency—amid rising racial tensions in the Dominican Republic.
FORT-LIBERTÉ, Haïti— Two weeks after the tragic death of 11-year-old Haitian Stephora Anne-Mircie Joseph during a school trip in Santiago, Dominican Republic, Attorney General Yeni Berenice Reynoso has ordered prosecutors to fast-track and reinforce the criminal investigation—the strongest action taken so far in a case marked by silence, conflicting accounts and missing details.
The announcement made on Nov. 28, after Stephora’s drowning, came as frustration grew among the family and human rights advocates who say they still have no clear explanation of how the Haitian student died.
Stephora’s official cause of death is drowning while on a school outing at Hacienda Los Caballos, a ranch in Gurabo, north of Santiago, on Nov.14.
For her mother, Lovelie Joseph Raphaël, the silence from the authorities has been unbearable.
“My daughter left school alive. They gave her back to me dead.” Lovelie says. She said she received no clear explanation about the tragedy.
Known for her bright personality, multilingual abilities, love for soccer and part-time modeling, Stephora was widely admired by teachers and classmates.
The Attorney General’s order came the same weekend the Leonardo da Vinci Institute, the child’s school, released its first public statemwhichent on Nov. 29, saying Stephora’s death “leaves a deep and indelible mark,” but offering no details about what happened.
Days after the death, Lovelie told the news outlet Machann Zen Haiti that the family still had limited information about the tragedy. She recounted that she received a call from the school saying her daughter “wasn’t feeling well” and asked clinic they should take her to.
Minutes later, she received a WhatsApp message telling her to go to the ranch — not a medical facility. When she arrived, she found no students, no teachers, and no administrators. Only a school lawyer and several police officers were present. She was told to wait outside because “a doctor was checking” her daughter.
Four hours passed. A police officer speaking to a colleague—not a doctor, not a school representative—finally said the words that broke her life that Stephora was dead.
To this day, the family says they have received no coherent account of what happened — no timeline of events, no description of the incident, no medical explanation beyond the drowning, no report from the school, and no surveillance footage showing the moment of the tragedy.
The family said, Dominican Minister of Public Health Daniel Rivera later showed the family a preliminary autopsy indicating mechanical asphyxiation, which means the child’s lungs filled with water. The minister also apologized to the mother for the “unacceptable treatment” she received at the ranch.
Although Hacienda Los Caballos is not listed as prohibited for school activities, a 2009 Ministry of Education decree bans school outings to beaches, rivers and unsecured pools, raising questions about safety protocols during the trip.
Local newspapers in the DR initially reported the death as a “drowning accident.” But even that account has not been supported by an official investigation. In a separate YouTube video reporting Stephora’s death, two Dominican journalists, Esteban Rosario and Delvis Durán, reported claims that three classmates allegedly assaulted Stephora in the pool and drowned her. They say the motive may have been racially motivated following classmates’ bullying and jealousy. These claims remain unconfirmed by authorities, with no public witness testimony and no surveillance video released.
The school’s statement did not answer key questions, including how long the child was underwater, who was supervising, or when the school notified her mother.
The family, with their lawyers Shesner Calcaño and Miguel Díaz, filed a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, citing extreme negligence, lack of safety measures, irregular handling of information, and a lack of transparency.
Local news like Diario Libre and Noticias Telemicro reported that the lawyers claim their first attempt to file the complaint was rejected by a prosecutor, Cristina Ramírez, who told them she would “decide after her own investigation,” without providing a timeline.
“In this type of case, immediate registration is the norm,” Calcaño said. “Here, we were prevented from reporting the incident.”
Stephora’s tragic death happened against the backdrop of racial tension
Stephora’s death comes amid rising racial tensions in the Dominican Republic, where Haitian immigrants and dark-skinned Dominicans frequently face discrimination and aggressive immigration raids.
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Recent police operations, described as violent by human rights groups, have led to mass deportations and heightened fears of further evictions in Haitian neighborhoods across the country.
In this context, the death of 11-year-old Stephora has taken on a deeper meaning for both countries. Her mother said that weeks before her death, Stephora came home crying after her classmates bullied her for her skin color.
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“Mom, I want to change my skin color,” Stephora told her mother, Lovelie. When she asked why, Stephora said classmates at school called her a “dirty Black girl.”
Almost three weeks after the tragedy, Stephora’s schoolbag, books, and clothes were still locked inside the Leonardo da Vinci Institute. The mother says the school has given her “nothing, not even “my child’s belongings.”
Haiti’s General Consulate in Santiago said it has been “mobilized from the very first minute” and is supporting the family “in all administrative and legal procedures.” The office added it is working to “establish the truth” and remains available to assist.
Human rights groups in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic say they are closely monitoring the case, calling it a test of whether Haitian children can receive justice in a system often accused of ignoring them.
“We cannot talk about justice without recognizing that in the Dominican Republic, racism and injustice, including the violation of the right to justice, are a rampant problem,” said Edmonde Pierre Fils, coordinator of the Haitian Women’s Emancipation Organization.
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