Mother files lawsuit against LAUSD over student's fatal fentanyl overdose
A mother is suing the Los Angeles Unified School District after her teenage daughter died from a fentanyl overdose. She says the school district is to blame.
This family says the lawsuit is not about money, that it's about making sure there are changes at the district level so no other children die from overdoses.
In September, 15-year-old Melanie Ramos was found dead in a bathroom at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood. She had overdosed on fentanyl.
Her family says the district had known that there were problems with drugs at that school, and that there had been six calls about possible overdoses this year.
They say administrators did not do enough to address the issue. The family thinks there should have been more security and patrols to keep an eye on students.
In this particular case, Ramos was found in the evening, several hours after she had been reported missing. It was another student's parent that found her. Ramos's aunt says that's unacceptable.
"If it wasn't for the other party's parent, then my niece wouldn't have been found until maybe the next day," said Gladys Manriques, Melanie Ramos's aunt. "That's why we want justice. We don't want another parent to suffer what we're suffering."
It is not clear if Ramos could have been saved if she had been found earlier.
CBSLA reached out to LAUSD for comment, but they said they could not comment on pending litigation. All they would say is that the safety and well-being of students and employees is their top priority.