Teen girl drowned under plastic pool cover after swim practice - now parents suing for $70m

Nabila Maazouz died in November 2019 while helping put covers on an Oregon pool after practice. Photo / Facebook / Nabila's Fund

A 14-year-old drowned under pool covers after swimming practice when they were closing up the facilities for training - now her family is filing a $70m lawsuit for wrongful death.

Nabila Maazouz, from Oregon, US, was swimming with her team when they had finished up training for the day and put the covers over the pool.

The youngsters took a piece of cover for the end of the pool, then swam back underneath it to fetch another piece to place on top.

It was after the second piece had been placed that Nabila, got into difficulty, but neither her teammates nor coach noticed that she was missing.

Nabila's mum Patty was waiting in the car outside the sports centre. She raised the alarm after seeing all the other team members and coach come out to head home.

The 14-year-old was found dead in the darkened pool, 25 minutes after they had closed up for the day.

The incident happened in November, 2019. Now, two years later, Nabila's parents are filing a lawsuit.

Speaking about the tragedy to news station KOIN 6 an emotional Patty said: "The thing that makes it so bad is that Nabila's death was preventable.

"We hope this lawsuit will make changes in the aquatic industry to prevent further tragedy from happening.

"We continue living every parent's worst nightmare."

The lawsuit says the coach instructed the team to cover the pool with a range of heavy covers that create suction when rolled on top of water.

Nabila and several of her teammates allegedly then grabbed the first pool cover, and swam with it to the deep end of the pool, and then swam back to the shallow end under the cover.

At that point, Nabila and a selection of her fellow swimmers then grabbed a second cover and swam it over to the deep end - leaving it next to the first cover.

They then swam back under the second cover - but, this time, Nabila did not resurface, the filing states.

The swimmers then continued to cover the pool, unaware that Nabila hadn't surfaced.

After finding her, they attemped to revive her, but were unsuccessful.

The lawsuit, filed by Patty and her husband Mostafa, claims the ThermaGard pool covers were "defective and unreasonably dangerous", allowing Maazouz to become trapped underneath.

The suit also takes issue with the district's use of the particular cover - which the Maazouz family argues was not up to code - and not having lifeguards on duty, while also failing to train employees on how to safely cover the pool - and, perhaps most importantly, failing to notice that Nabila did not resurface with the other team members.

Hillsboro School District spokeswoman Beth Graser said Maazouz's "death was a tragedy that we are all still grieving.

"Our hearts and thoughts continue to go out to her family and all who knew her."