ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – “St. Louis County failed T.J. Mister. The state of Missouri failed T.J. Mister,” State Rep Michael Burton told FOX 2.
Rep. Burton says he continues to be astounded by the failures we’ve uncovered surrounding the 6-year-old’s drowning this summer.
“Your reporting, digging into this story more and more, I know we’ve been in contact for quite some time…and we keep learning more things, and I’m grateful that you’re digging into it,” he said.
From a lack of lifeguards to missing medical equipment, we have uncovered deficiency after deficiency surrounding the 6-year-old’s death.
“The fact that it can be prevented, that’s what really makes me angry is,” Olga Mister, T.J.’s mother, said. “(The county) could have prevented my son’s death.”
Olga and her husband, Travone, have not rested since their son’s death, pushing for change, like at a November St. Louis County Council meeting. Olga says it was a call with Burton that brought her the most encouragement.
She said the call “was about an hour and a half…I reached out to him on Facebook.”
“It’s really tough,” Burton said. “T.J. went to the same grade school as I went to – Mesnier. This was preventable.”
Summer camps are not regulated in Missouri, meaning all of the deficiencies we’ve uncovered in our investigations have limited consequence for St. Louis County, because there’s no license for discipline.
“These are very basic things. We just want to license it, just like any daycare, and we want to make sure the staff is properly trained,” Burton said. “We’re going to be filing this bill very soon, probably within the next two weeks. We’re going to be filing the first draft.”
“This is not for my kid. My son’s not coming back,” Olga said. “This is for everybody else’s child to make sure they don’t feel what I feel, they don’t feel what my husband feels – our family.”