LA school district to pay $18m as boy with Down syndrome, 8, suffered fatal fall after being STRAPPED into chair
LA PUENTE, CALIFORNIA: A La Puente family mourning the accidental death of an 8-year-old boy with Down Syndrome has settled a multimillion lawsuit against the LA School district. The school district has been ordered to pay $18 million to the parents of the boy who died after accidentally falling while strapped to a chair in class five years ago, the family announced.
The successful outcome of the lawsuit filed by the family of Moises Murrillo was announced by their lawyer in a news conference on Wednesday, August 17, in La Puente, a suburb east of Los Angeles.
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The horrible incident happened with Moises on May 31, 2017, when he was enjoying his time on his specialized stroller that he used as he was unable to walk because of his severe form of down syndrome. At some point, the officials present in the class decided to remove Moises from his stroller and strapped him to a regular class chair. "They put him in this predicament and then they proceeded to turn their back on him leaving him alone and without any supervision whatsoever," family attorney Steve Vartazarian said.
"Moises was playing when he suddenly knocked himself backward. His head hit the classroom floor, severely injuring his spinal cord," says the lawsuit filed by Moises’ parents - Martin Murrillo and Roberta Gomez. He went into cardiac arrest and was taken to a hospital, where he died on June 4, 2017, of spinal cord trauma, the court filing said.
"He was always happy. He would always make everybody happy," Moises's sister Lizbeth Murrillo told NBC Los Angeles. "My brother did mean everything to us. Until this day, my mom might look like she's OK, that she's fine, but she's not," she added.
The family lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2018 alleged that "Hacienda La Puente Unified School District failed to provide safe surroundings and allowed the vulnerable boy to be unsupervised and unrestrained during his class."
The school district resolved the lawsuit with the victim's family just one week ahead of a potential trial. However, the settlement between the two parties doesn’t include an admission of fault on behalf of the school district.
"We fought for years to get some answers about what happened and this district will not answer any questions about it. Instead, they tried to sweep it under the rug like nothing happened," Vartazarian told NBC Los Angeles. "The question to the school district will be, 'are you going to do anything different as a result of this tragedy here at the school?''' he further added.
The school district is yet to make any official statement on the settlement.