JOHNSON COUNTY, IA — An Iowa City elementary school teacher and a fifth grade student died after a water emergency Tuesday at Lake Macbride, according to the Iowa City Community School District.
The district identified the victims as Hannah Jorgensen, 24, a fifth grade teacher at Borlaug Elementary, and Ahmed Osman, 10, a fifth grade student there. The incident unfolded during a Borlaug Elementary School of the Wild field trip at the MacBride Nature Recreation Area.
Authorities said the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office was called around 12:10 p.m. to a report of people in the water near the Coralville Reservoir spillway.
How responders found the teacher and student
First responders recovered Jorgensen from the reservoir about 30 minutes after the call. She was pronounced dead at the scene, the school district said.
Searchers continued looking for Osman through Tuesday evening, then suspended recovery work overnight. The effort resumed Wednesday morning, and crews recovered him from the water at 1:24 p.m.
The sheriff’s office said it continues to investigate what happened. Officials have not released further details about how the emergency began or how the pair entered the water.
Borlaug Elementary mourns two members of its community
District leaders said the deaths have affected students and staff across Borlaug Elementary and the wider school system. In a Wednesday statement, the district said Jorgensen and Osman were “deeply valued members” of the community.
School leaders said counselors and additional support staff will remain available at Borlaug in the days ahead. They said grief will look different for each person and that the immediate focus will be on giving students and employees time, space, and support.
The district also thanked the first responders and agencies that helped during the search and recovery effort.
Agencies that joined the search and recovery effort
Multiple agencies assisted at the reservoir and in the surrounding area. Those listed by the district included the Johnson County Metro Dive Team, Johnson County Emergency Management, several area fire departments, Johnson County Ambulance Service, University of Iowa Police, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa State Patrol, UI Air Care, and the Johnson County Medical Examiner.
The Story County Sheriff’s Office also helped Wednesday. The large response reflected the difficulty of the search in and around the reservoir and spillway area.
Officials have not said how long the water emergency lasted before help arrived, but the recovery efforts stretched across two days.
Field trips canceled for the foreseeable future
The tragedy also changed plans for Borlaug Elementary’s School of the Wild program. The district previously canceled those field trips for the foreseeable future.
The School of the Wild outing was taking place at the MacBride Nature Recreation Area when the emergency occurred. The district has not announced when, or whether, the program will resume.
For now, school officials are focused on supporting the Borlaug community while investigators continue their work.
What remains under investigation in Johnson County
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the incident. No additional details about the circumstances have been released, including how the people ended up in the water or whether any safety concerns have been identified.
The district’s statement and the sheriff’s updates show that the response involved both school support and a broad emergency effort. Officials said the victims’ loss is being felt across the district as the community begins to grieve.
The incident happened during a school trip intended for outdoor learning, turning a routine district program into a fatal emergency that closed with the recovery of both victims by Wednesday afternoon.
