A California teenager who died 10 days after a brutal high school fight was filmed appeared to have died from accidental head trauma, likely from falling down the stairs at a party, authorities said. .
Shaylee Mejia, 16, was seen on video being attacked in a bathroom at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles on March 5, and her mother said at least one of the bullies hit her. This is the second time.
Officials said the girl collapsed during a party four days later and was taken to a hospital in an unconscious state, where she died on March 15. told the Los Angeles Times.
but, Preliminary anatomy listed her death as an “accident” and listed the cause of death as “sequel of blunt head trauma” or as a result of a previous head injury.
The case remains “unsolved,” and the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office report does not detail the cause of the fatal head injury.
However, according to the Los Angeles Times, investigators are looking into reports that the girl fell down the stairs during a birthday party on March 9, which resulted in her being hospitalized.
She was unconscious throughout her hospital stay, and doctors alerted her family that she arrived in critical condition with a brain hemorrhage, the report said.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said filing officers received two calls in the case. The first was a report that she had fallen at a party, and the second was the next day that a missing boy had been found at a local hospital.
The department did not respond to further questions about the situation, according to the LA Times.
Shaylee’s mother, Maria Juarez, rejected the idea that her daughter’s death was related to anything other than the brutal bullying she said was caught on camera.
The Guatemalan mother blamed the school district for failing to protect her daughter, pointing out the cruel irony that she chose to raise her children as a single mother to protect them from abuse at the hands of her ex-husband.
“I never thought the enemy would be the school itself,” Juarez told the newspaper in Spanish.
The assault was captured on disturbing mobile phone video, which shows her running into a toilet stall before falling to the floor.
According to her mother, the girl complained of a headache but attended classes for several days, then passed out during a party and was taken to the hospital.
She remained unconscious and died less than a week later.
Juarez, 34, claimed that since her daughter started public school a few months ago, she often came home covered in bruises. She recorded Shaylee’s injuries and reported them to school officials and campus police, but her pleas for help went unheeded, she said.
“As a mother, I left her at school, confident that everything would be okay,” Juarez told the LA Times.
“I’m in shock. I have another child who’s three years old now. How do I get him to go to school? I just think I’m letting my child die again.”
Luis Carrillo, Juarez’s civil rights attorney, also pushed back against suggestions that Sheiley fell down the stairs, arguing that the party was held in a one-story building.
The lawyer said it was clear Shaley had been severely assaulted twice before her death, but acknowledged not everything was known about the incident.
“You can see how her head hits that particular wall,” Carrillo told the LA Times, referring to the shocking footage. “The way her head hit the wall was grotesque.”
A school spokesperson told the outlet that the Los Angeles Police Department is still investigating the incident and declined to answer further questions.
“I am saddened to report the recent death of one of our students off campus,” Principal Alejandro Macias said in a message to parents on March 20.
He expressed his condolences to “those affected by this loss, including the student’s family, friends and teachers.”
The next day, he sent another memo to families about the incident in which “school staff intervened to break up an altercation between students,” the newspaper said.
Macias said it was not immediately clear whether the incident was related to Sheiley’s death, but additional officers would be patrolling the campus “under extreme caution.”
Juarez said she is speaking out for other parents’ children.
“This situation is very painful, but I can’t stay silent. I can’t stay silent because other girls might go through the same thing,” she told the LA Times. “This has to stop.”
Carrillo said the family is working toward filing a lawsuit in the case.
