A school district in San Bernardino County, California has agreed to pay the mother of a teen girl who died due to an asthma attack at school $15.75 million. The mother's attorneys confirmed the settlement to PEOPLE Magazine.
Edith Sepulveda filed a lawsuit back in 2020, alleging that her 13-year-old daughter Adilene Carrasco suffered a fatal asthma attack at Mesa View Middle School in October 2019 due to the school's negligence. The school that Carrasco attended is part of the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District.
According to the suit, the teen student had a history of asthma attacks at her school. That particular information was logged in a student electronic database which teachers had to review at the beginning of the school year.
Carrasco forced to walk to upper athletic field from their classroom by science teacher
The lawsuit claimed, however, that Carrasco's science teacher did not review that information. The teacher asked all the students to walk to the upper athletic field from the classroom for a Halloween "pumpkin chuckin" contest. They walked a distance measuring 366 yards, which is equivalent to the length of three football fields.
Carrasco had difficulty breathing when she arrived at the field and asked her science teacher if she would be able to go back and get her inhaler in the classroom, according to court documents. She walked with her friend all the way back to the classroom to retrieve the inhaler but it did not help her feel any better, according to USA Today.
She managed to make her way back to the field where her class was. Given that she had not been feeling well still, she asked to go to the nurse's office. While heading there, a campus monitor noticed Carrasco's weakened condition and drove her straight to the nurse's office.
Carrasco, who was in respiratory distress when she arrived at the nurse's office, fell unconscious and went into cardiac arrest. According to the lawsuit, she was transferred to the hospital where she died nine days later.
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Sepulveda's attorney says Carrasco's death was a preventable tragedy
Sepulveda told KCBS-TV in an interview that they send their kids to school and they are supposed to give them back and she did not get her daughter back.
Sepulveda's attorney Robert Glassman issued a statement, saying that Adilene's death was a preventable tragedy that resonates and reaffirms the fear of every caregiver and parent of an asthmatic child.
Apart from the monetary settlement, the school district also agreed to provide asthma management training to its teachers and staff in partnership with asthma experts in the area. The school district will adopt the California School Board Association's best practices on school-based asthma management as well as change its protocols for handling students with medical conditions.
