Lawyers for a new lawsuit claimed Wednesday that a 15-year-old Los Angeles student who died of a suspected overdose was absent for eight hours before her body was discovered in her high school toilet by her friend’s stepfather.
Melanie Ramos, a student at Helen Bernstein High School, was tragically pronounced dead in the school’s bathroom on a September evening from suspected fentanyl poisoning, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. The lawsuit alleges that school officials failed to search for the girl, thereby possibly delaying medical assistance that could have saved her life.
The wrongful death and negligence case, filed by the mother of the deceased student, Elena Perez, alleges that her daughter and her companion, who also overdosed and was hospitalized, were discovered by the friend’s stepparent on September 13 at 8:30 p.m.
Ramos was located by the stepfather of a friend after being lost for eight hours.
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The companion of Ramos awoke at 8 p.m. on the day in question, observed that Ramos was unconscious, and hurried to her father outdoors.
According to the lawsuit, an administrator called Perez earlier that day to inform her that Ramos was absent from class.
The LA Times claimed that LAPD Chief Michael Moore stated Ramos took a medication she believed to be Percocet but was really laced with Fentanyl. A complete autopsy is still awaiting and will disclose how long she was dead before she was discovered.
According to CBS Los Angeles, Ramos’ aunt, Gladys Manriques, stated during a news conference on Wednesday that if not for the other party’s parent, her niece would not have been found until the next day. This is why we want justice. We do not want another parent to go through what we are going through.”
The lawsuit also describes how the high school failed to control the flow of illegal substances within the school, making them widely accessible to students.
According to the LA Times, the lawsuit claims the school did not conduct “bathroom sweeps” to uncover pupils selling or using drugs.
The newspaper said that attorney Michael Carrillo stated, “Kids would buy, sell, and use drugs in the bathroom at Bernstein while campus administrators did nothing.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District declined to comment on the complaint, but stated that “the safety and well-being of our kids and personnel remains our number one priority.”
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