The Yucaipa-Calimesa (Calif) district has agreed to pay $15.75 million to a mother of a 13-year-old girl who died in 2019 after an asthma attack at school.
The Associated Press reports that the district agreed to the payment to settle a negligence lawsuit over the death of Adilene Carrasco, attorneys said.
Adrian, who attended Mesa View Middle School in Calimesa, had a history of asthma attacks, and began having breathing problems on Oct. 31, 2019, after her class walked to an athletic field for a Halloween “pumpkin chuckin’ contest."
According to the suit, the girl’s science teacher — who hadn’t read her student profile noting her condition — sent Adilene and a friend up a hill to the classroom to retrieve her inhaler. Her condition worsened during the walk back. She then was sent to the nurse’s office, which meant walking back up the hill again despite her breathing problems,
On the way, Adilene was spotted by a campus monitor and taken to the nurse's office in a golf cart but the girl was gasping for breath, couldn’t talk, and finally stopped breathing. She was revived via cardiopulmonary resuscitation but died nine days later at a hospital.
The lawsuit contended that the school had violated its own safety policy, which called for an adult chaperone to escort a student with breathing problems to the nurse.
As part of the settlement, the school district promised to make changes to its procedures for dealing with students with identified medical issues, including having a pulmonologist train staff members about caring for students with asthma.
