It appeared to be an everyday day at Reseda Constitution Excessive Faculty. For Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa, that meant bother.
The 12-year-old was on campus on Feb. 17 when she noticed her older sister, Sharon, being bullied by a gaggle of scholars, her household says. It wasn’t the primary time. She and her sister had been targets of such torment earlier than.
Khimberly moved to intervene. Within the ensuing melee, she was hit within the head with a steel water bottle — inflicting accidents so extreme that she was hospitalized, and later died.
Her demise left her household devastated and demanding solutions.
“She dreamed of turning into a health care provider, and she or he would at all times inform me that she would maintain me,” mentioned her mom, Elma Chuquipa Sanchez, as she wiped away tears.
The household on Wednesday filed a wrongful-death declare in opposition to the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District, alleging faculty officers failed to research experiences of bullying, adequately supervise pupil interactions or implement efficient security measures.
An LAUSD spokesperson mentioned the district doesn’t touch upon pending or ongoing litigation.
“When violence escalates, that’s a breakdown of pupil security, and that’s precisely what occurred right here with the LAUSD,” mentioned Robert Glassman. The legal professional, a associate with one of many three legislation corporations representing the household, mentioned throughout a information convention Wednesday morning that the “tragedy actually highlights and underscores the very actual and devastating penalties of unchecked bullying.”
Of their declare, a precursor to a lawsuit, Khimberly’s household alleges the Feb. 17 incident was not the primary time their ladies had been “bullied and harassed on campus.” Their mom, the declare alleged, “had repeatedly reported bullying episodes to an LAUSD administrator. However LAUSD did nothing.”
Glassman, of Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, mentioned the identical group of scholars had bullied different children on the faculty and attacked one other feminine pupil within the weeks main as much as Feb. 17.
He mentioned the assault on that woman was captured on video and posted on social media with the caption, “Joyful Tuesday.”
A video that captured the incident with Khimberly and her sister has additionally circulated on social media.
Glassman and household mentioned Khimberly was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys after the Feb. 17 incident. She was evaluated after which despatched residence.
Three days later, nevertheless, she underwent emergency mind surgical procedure at UCLA Mattel Youngsters’s Hospital. She was positioned in a medically induced coma and died on Feb. 25.
Glassman mentioned the household’s authorized group is trying into whether or not Khimberly was correctly examined throughout her preliminary hospitalization. However he says the tragedy nonetheless spotlights the bullying issues at LAUSD, the second-largest faculty system within the nation.
“Stories of bullying at this faculty district, fairly frankly, are off the charts,” Glassman mentioned. “In accordance with a latest examine, 1 out of three center faculty college students like Khimberly have skilled bullying at an LAUSD faculty.”
LAUSD officers declined to touch upon or affirm that ratio. However in 2017, an inner audit discovered that 1 in 5 highschool college students and 1 in 4 elementary faculty college students mentioned they’d been bullied within the final faculty yr.
“That’s inexcusable,” Glassman mentioned. “That is one thing the varsity district wants to start out taking significantly.”
In December, UCLA and UC Riverside researchers surveyed 606 public excessive colleges principals to find out how the Trump administration’s mass deportations had been affecting college students.
About 36% of the principals, who had been surveyed from Might to August, mentioned college students from immigrant households had been bullied, and 64% mentioned their attendance had dropped.
At Wednesday’s information convention, Glassman performed a video displaying the second when Khimberly and her 15-year-old sister had been allegedly attacked by bullies. He didn’t elaborate additional on the context however mentioned it was taken earlier than Khimberly was struck with a steel water bottle.
The 49-second video begins with a younger woman in blue pants selecting up a steel water bottle from the bottom and throwing it at one other woman. Shortly after, a tall boy with a skullcap grabs her in what seems to be a chokehold whereas a pupil within the background yells, “Combat, combat, combat.”
The woman manages to interrupt free however is then attacked by the identical woman whom she threw the water bottle at. One other, smaller woman in pinkish pants will be seen strolling intently behind the woman in blue.
In an interview on Tier Discuss — a podcast present on YouTube — the women’ uncle Man Gazit recognized the woman in blue as Sharon and the woman in pinkish pants as Khimberly. In contrast to Glassman, Gazit mentioned the video was taken after Khimberly had already been hit with the water bottle, and that Sharon threw the bottle on the different pupil in response.
“As you see, she’s clinging on to her older sister and walks behind her as a result of earlier than that she got here [to the] entrance and she or he was hit within the head,” Gazit mentioned.
“She’s clinging as a result of at this level she’s already damage, proper?” the interviewer requested.
“She’s already damage; she’s already complaining she’s dizzy,” Gazit responds.
Gazit claims within the interview that college cops had been on campus when the combat happened and that the opposite college students concerned weren’t disciplined.
Throughout Wednesday’s information convention, Khimberly’s dad and mom stood collectively, crying as they remembered their daughter as an outgoing younger woman who cherished to sing, dance and was studying to cook dinner.
Between them had been two massive pictures of Khimberly. In a single, she and her sister hugged their mom, who was kneeling over the Hollywood star of actor Christopher Reeve.
Within the different, a 9-year-old Khimberly held drawings and photos for a college challenge.
“I helped her with it,” her father mentioned, smiling barely. “She obtained an excellent grade on it.”
Khimberly’s demise brings extra scrutiny to LAUSD at a time when the district is already entangled in different controversies.
Final week, a Carson Excessive Faculty workers member was placed on go away for allegedly sparking a collection of fights on campus.
Two weeks in the past, Supt. Alberto Carvalho was positioned on paid administrative go away pending an investigation after the FBI raided his residence and district workplace.
That is additionally not the primary time LAUSD has been blamed within the demise of a pupil amid allegations of bullying.
In March 2024, 16-year-old Shaylee Mejia died after she suffered a mind hemorrhage. The household claimed it was tied to a bullying-related combat at college.
However a last post-mortem report decided there was no hyperlink between the combat — throughout which Mejia appeared to slam her head right into a wall — and her demise. The report as a substitute cited accidents she suffered after falling down some stairs days after the combat happened.
