A Southern California school district agreed to an $18 million settlement with the parents of a special needs child who died after he fell out of his chair on campus five years ago, lawyers for the boy's family said Wednesday.
Moises Murillo, then 8, had a severe form of Down syndrome and was using his highly specialized chair on May 31, 2017, during summer classes at Sunset Elementary School in La Puente, in Los Angeles County. Moises, who was unable to walk, was taken out of the adaptive stroller and strapped into a normal school chair so he could participate in a classroom activity, according to his family’s lawsuit against the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District.
Moises, who was unattended, fell backward, hitting his head on the floor, severely injuring his spinal cord and leading to his death days later, his loved ones said.
"My brother did mean everything to us," sister Lizbeth Murillo told reporters Wednesday. "And to this day, my mom might look like she's OK and that she's fine, but she's not."
Even with the settlement in hand, family attorney Steve Vartazarian tore into the school district for its handling of the matter.
“We fought for years to get some answers about what happened. And this district would not answer any questions about it,” Vartazarian said. “Instead, they tried to sweep it under the rug as if nothing happened.”
The district agreed to a settlement just before the case was about to go to trial in late June, Vartazarian said.
Representatives of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District did not reply to several messages seeking its response Thursday.
The district's board minutes from a meeting June 30 showed that trustees went into a closed session to hear from district legal counsel about a matter of "significant exposure to litigation."
Board members approved "litigation settlement" with a special education student by a 5-0 vote in the closed-door meeting, according to the minutes.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, the estate of Moises Murillo, asked for the Los Angeles County Superior Court lawsuit to be dismissed on Aug. 1, and the court signed off on dismissal the next day, records showed.
