On Dec. 13, after a protracted day of cleansing motel rooms as a housekeeper, Maria Juarez discovered her 16-year-old daughter at their South Los Angeles dwelling trembling and sweating.
Juarez requested her elder youngster, Shaylee Mejia, what occurred, however Shaylee hesitated. She didn’t need her mom to make it an even bigger deal, Juarez recalled her saying. She reached for her daughter’s arm, who cried out in ache. Lastly Shaylee defined that she had been bullied for being new at Guide Arts Excessive Faculty and had gotten right into a battle at college. Bruises lined her arms and chest.
The subsequent day, Juarez mentioned, she went to the varsity and tried to inform directors about what occurred. However she mentioned they dismissed her considerations and did not take motion.
Months later, Shaylee was focused once more at Guide Arts, her mom mentioned, a battle that she believes led to her daughter’s premature loss of life.
“As a mom, I had full confidence in leaving her on the college and understanding every part could be OK,” Juarez, 34, mentioned in an interview in Spanish. “I’m in shock. I’ve one other youngster who’s 3 years outdated now. How will I ship him to high school? I’ll simply be considering that I’m sending my youngster to his loss of life once more.”
Juarez, who’s from Guatemala, mentioned she locations blame on the varsity district for its negligence and insufficient effort to guard Shaylee. She mentioned she grew to become a single mom so as to defend her kids from abuse by her former accomplice.
“I didn’t know the enemy could be the varsity itself,” she mentioned.
On March 9, Shaylee fainted whereas at a celebration and was taken to the hospital, her mom mentioned. By the point she arrived, her daughter was unconscious, Juarez mentioned; a physician instructed her that Shaylee had arrived in severe situation and had suffered a mind hemorrhage.
Juarez later discovered that days earlier, on March 5, her daughter had once more been attacked in a college toilet, and this time, video from the battle confirmed the scholar hitting her head in opposition to a toilet stall.
Shaylee by no means regained consciousness on the hospital, her mom mentioned, and 6 days later she was declared lifeless.
The Los Angeles County medical expert this weekend dominated Shaylee’s loss of life unintentional, discovering the reason for loss of life was “sequelae of blunt head trauma,” or the results of a previous head harm. The company didn’t instantly reply to additional questions concerning the post-mortem.
It wasn’t clear from the preliminary findings whether or not the deadly head harm was from the varsity battle or one thing else. The Los Angeles Police Division mentioned the case stays below investigation.
An LAPD spokesperson mentioned the company responded twice to calls associated to Shaylee’s loss of life, first on March 9 for a sufferer who fell, after which the following day for a “misplaced juvenile discovered at an area hospital.” The spokesperson didn’t reply to follow-up questions from The Instances concerning the circumstances round these calls.
In accordance with a report from KTLA-TV Channel 5, detectives are wanting into experiences that Shaylee fell down stairs the night time she went to the hospital. However Juarez and her lawyer, Luis Carrillo, dispute the experiences, noting that the celebration was held at a one-story constructing.
Carrillo, a civil rights lawyer, admits there are nonetheless some unknowns within the case — however he mentioned it’s clear that Shaylee was badly crushed, twice, earlier than she died.
“You’ll be able to see how her head hits that specific wall,” Carrillo mentioned, referencing cellphone video of one of many fights. “It was grotesque the best way her head hit the wall.”
The Instances reviewed video from the 2 fights, which gave the impression to be filmed on cellphones in a highschool toilet. One of many movies appeared to indicate Shaylee hitting her head on a toilet stall. It wasn’t precisely clear when the fights occurred or what prompted them. The movies don’t present employees intervening; as an alternative, it seems that a number of college students finally break up the fights.
Carrillo mentioned Shaylee’s loss of life might have been prevented if college officers stepped in after they discovered about harmful preventing.
“They don’t defend the children,” he mentioned. “I consider that the failure to guard [Juarez’s] youngster is the principle purpose why she’s lifeless proper now. … If that they had taken motion in December, the kid would nonetheless be alive.”
Carrillo hasn’t but filed a lawsuit within the case, however mentioned they’re working towards that.
When Juarez approached college directors concerning the December battle, she mentioned an assistant principal dismissed her considerations, even when she and her daughter tried to share video of the encounter. Juarez mentioned she refused to go away the varsity till a report was filed, however she isn’t certain what got here of that. Nobody ever adopted up along with her, she mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District mentioned the LAPD is investigating the matter, however declined to reply additional questions concerning the case or earlier incidents on the college. As a substitute, it shared two messages despatched to Guide Arts Excessive Faculty households on March 20 and 21.
Within the first assertion, Principal Alejandro Macias mentioned he was “saddened to report the current loss of life of one in all our college students off campus.” He provided condolences “to those that are impacted by this loss, together with the scholar’s household, mates, and lecturers,” and talked about the provision of assist providers for these battling the loss.
The next day, the principal despatched one other be aware to households about an incident through which “college employees intervened to interrupt up a bodily altercation between college students,” noting that an investigation was ongoing and that further Los Angeles Faculty Cops could be offering further patrols on campus “in an abundance of warning.” It wasn’t instantly clear if this incident was associated to Shaylee’s loss of life.
Juarez mentioned her daughter had been considerate and caring, typically serving to take care of her youthful brother, and had needed to be a nurse someday.
Shaylee spent most of her schooling on the UCLA Group Faculty, the place she by no means had any points, her mom mentioned. However Juarez moved Shaylee to Guide Arts for the 2023-24 college 12 months to maintain her nearer to dwelling, a transfer she thought could be safer.
As a substitute, Juarez mentioned, her daughter confronted bullies and threats at her new college’s campus. Juarez mentioned she’s talking out now for the sake of different mother and father’ kids.
“This case has been immensely painful, however I can’t keep quiet. I can’t keep quiet as a result of different women might expertise the identical factor,” she mentioned. “This has to cease.”
Again on the UCLA Group Faculty, classmates arrange an altar for Shaylee. They adorned it with candles, crimson roses and printed out images of their former classmate. Class images shared from through the years confirmed Shaylee in second grade, carrying pigtails, and years later, with highlights in her hair.
“I miss you child woman. You had been so beloved and by no means might be forgotten,” somebody wrote on one balloon. “Lengthy stay Shaylee.”
A buddy began a GoFundMe fundraiser to assist Juarez elevate cash for funeral bills.
