A Pittsylvania County woman is suing the state for $15 million, claiming her 12-year-old son's drowning at Smith Mountain Lake State Park was partly due to the negligent training and supervising of park lifeguards.

The suit also names as defendants the church that sponsored the summer 2008 trip to the park that ended with Marvin Strickland's death. Several lifeguards and church chaperones are also being sued.

According to the suit filed by Dora Mae Henley on behalf of her son, the state's negligent management of lifeguards "created and maintained a public nuisance, which was a proximate cause of Master Strickland's death by drowning."

Charles James, Virginia's chief deputy attorney general, declined to comment on the suit, which was filed March 4 in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court. The attorney general's office is charged with defending the state against lawsuits.

Strickland was one of six children and four adults who traveled to the Bedford County park on Aug. 7, 2008, from Gretna's Sycamore Baptist Church, where he sang in the choir. Strickland, a rising seventh-grader at Gretna Middle School, was playing in shallow water when he went to deeper water to retrieve a float and drowned. The boy did not know how to swim.

Several lifeguards were on duty at the time of the drowning, though no one saw the boy go under, according to the official investigation. When the boy was reported missing, lifeguards began searching for him, but his body was not pulled from the lake until 30 minutes later.

In addition to the state and the church, the lawsuit also names as defendants three lifeguards, a park ranger and four church chaperones. The suit maintains that the chaperones were responsible for supervising Strickland, while the lifeguards had a duty "to exercise reasonable care to protect him from the negligent acts and omissions of third persons, including the Adult Chaperones."

The lawsuit also seeks $350,000 in punitive damages.