A juvenile was arrested last week in connection with the death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta, who passed away in February from injuries she sustained during an alleged bullying incident at Reseda Charter High School, according to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
The name, age and gender of the suspect – who was taken into custody and booked for murder – have not been disclosed “due to the sensitive nature of the investigation and the involved parties being juveniles,” LAPD Officer David Cuellar told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division of the Valley Bureau Section is investigating the case as a homicide.
“We are encouraged to see that law enforcement and the judicial system are taking steps to bring justice for Khimberly,” her uncle, Guy Gazit, told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. “We want to see the system do the right thing, both punitively and with paving the way towards legislation that would create a better deterrence system, so no child should ever be bullied again and no family has to go through what our family and other families like [ours] have been through.”
The attorney for Khimberly’s family, Robert Glassman, released a statement, which reads:
“This arrest is an important step toward accountability, but an arrest alone does not equal justice and does not answer the larger question of how this was allowed to happen in the first place. The focus cannot stop with one student – there must be a hard look at what the adults in charge knew, when they knew it and why meaningful action wasn’t taken sooner.
“Schools have a legal duty to protect the children in their care, and when there are warning signs of escalating violence, intervention is not optional – it’s required,” continued Glassman, a partner with Panish, Shea and Ravipudi LLP.
Gazit said more should be done to help prevent bullying and keep kids safe.
“So many parents are coming out of the woodwork, telling me their children’s stories about bullying,” said Gazit, noting that several of the parents he’s met since Khimberly’s death have pulled their kids out of school to homeschool them instead, which he described as “absurd.”
“It should not be the bullied child who goes home – it should be the bully,” he said.
LAUSD Rejects Family’s Legal Claim
Khimberly’s family filed a legal claim for damages against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in early March, alleging they failed to protect Khimberly despite her family having reported prior bullying episodes on multiple occasions to school officials at Reseda Charter, which has both a middle school and high school on the campus.
Filing a legal claim is the required first step before filing a lawsuit, according to Glassman. LAUSD officially rejected the legal claim on March 18.
Bullying was Ongoing
As the San Fernando Sun/el Sol previously reported, Khimberly was fatally injured when a metal water bottle was thrown and hit her head during an altercation with classmates on campus Feb. 17. The incident began inside a classroom near the end of the school day between Khimberly’s 15-year-old sister and one or more alleged bullies, explained Gazit. After the class ended, which was the last of the day, the confrontation continued as the students exited the classroom and walked along an open-air corridor between school buildings, surrounded by classmates.
Gazit said Khimberly stepped in to defend her older sister and she was struck by a metal water bottle that was reportedly thrown by the suspect. The sisters left campus soon after and met their parents, who were waiting for them outside the school. Sometime after leaving, Khimberly complained of a headache and she was taken to a hospital emergency room. Her mother was instructed to give her acetaminophen and to return if her symptoms worsened.
That happened four days later, when Khimberly suddenly collapsed in extreme pain at her family’s home in Sherman Oaks and was taken back to the hospital, where they discovered a brain hemorrhage. She underwent brain surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma.
Khimberly died in the hospital eight days after she was injured.
When asked if Khimberly’s family will file a lawsuit against the first hospital, where she was examined and released without any imaging, such as a CT scan, Glassman responded, “The family continues to weigh all their legal options,” adding that, for the time being, “their focus is on supporting each other and holding the Los Angeles Unified School District accountable for its failure to intervene long before Khimberly’s life was needlessly taken away from them.
“This tragedy demands a full and transparent investigation, not just into the individuals involved, but into the systems that failed this child,” said Glassman.
If this happened to my children, best believe I would make it my mission to be sure that not only the student who threw the bottle at her was punished but the parents as well. Because this sort of behavior begins at home. It is the parents job to educate these kids which they obviously have not!
Unbelievable that a legitimate DOCTOR would not have ordered a CT scan that would have saved this child’s life. He either had personal indifference, was a racist, or the ever bottom line CTs cost money, did they have privatized Health Insurance? The attending Dr, hospital, and all involved need to be sued into Bankruptcy.