Former Tallahassee resident and Attorney Salesia Smith-Gordon, left, greets Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson at the private breakfast in Washington, D.C. during the 2025 session . Provided by Geraldine Williams
Source: WPTV West Palm Beach By: Merris Badcock
Family searches for answers from school district after son choked to death during lunch
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – In 2015, Kedar Williams, a teenage boy with autism, choked on his food and had to be hospitalized for weeks.
Kedar’s parents held onto photos of their son in the hospital as a reminder of what could happen if he chokes again.
Doctors decided Kedar should always be under supervision while eating.
“What [Kedar] would tend to do would be to eat a lot of food at one time. It would go into the lungs and that would be catastrophic,” said Salesia Smith-Gordon, an attorney representing Kedar’s father, Jeffrey Williams.
Smith-Gordon is speaking on behalf of Williams because, on the second day of school this year, Kedar choked again.
“The school failed. It did not follow the protocols it was supposed to,” said Smith-Gordon.
The William T. Dwyer High student choked during lunch. He had been left unattended the family says and Kedar died later that day.
“The [forensic] report gives us more information than the school has ever said because the school has not said anything.”
