Remembering student who drowned at Manchester High

MANCHESTER, Conn. (WTNH) -- Students, staff, and parents came together in Manchester Monday night to remember the life of a teenager who drowned in his high school swimming pool.

A great crowd stood in the chilly November night in front of Manchester High School. 14-year-old Malvrick Donkor had only been in this school system a short time, but he made quite an impact.

"He got pretty popular, he had a lot of friends," said Kyon Russell, a Manchester High freshman. "It was all over Facebook and Twitter and all that. Everyone's talking about him, everyone was talking about how they were going to the vigil. Today, actually, everyone wore black in honor of him."

Donkor was taking a swimming class at the high school when he drowned. There were many other students in the pool with him at the time and a teacher was supervising, but they were all in the deep end and apparently Donkor slipped below the surface and went unnoticed for several minutes. 

Monday night the crowd gathered to mourn and remember, with solemn notes from a lone trumpet.

His older brother, a junior, said a few words as did his cousin. Then, a sea of candles were held high while the Roundtable Singers offered a soft tune.

Then a moment of silence.

"Yeah, it's hard," said freshman Joshua Haslett. "He was a really cool guy so just gotta hope for, wish his family the best."

Haslett played on the freshman soccer team with Donkor. He saw him every day for practice. Donkor's tragic death hit the team pretty hard. But even those who didn't know Donkor as well say this is so difficult to accept. They say the school is suffering.

"Some people were crying in the hallways," freshman David Walker said. "I just walked up to them and was like, it's okay, you know."

But it won't really be okay, not for a very long time.

"He was a really cool guy, he was always really positive, you just couldn't get him down," Haslett said. "He was always upbeat, a really good friend.

The incident is still under investigation, but the swim class teacher has been placed on administrative leave and all swim classes have been suspended for the time being.

Donkor was a recent immigrant from Ghana and had hoped to become a doctor.