When Schools Failing to Act Leads to the Death of a Student

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By Quintessa Williams | Word In Black(WIB) – When Kaleiah Jones, a Black teenager with a heart condition, collapsed in the hallway of her Norfolk, Virginia, high school in February, her odds for survival were good. Her schoolmates immediately called for help, the school nurse and the resource officer raced to the scene, and the school had several life-saving automatic defibrillator machines installed nearby. Yet 10 minutes later, Kaleiah was still unconscious on the floor as the adults around her couldn’t figure out what to do. No one — not the nurse, nor the resource officer, nor the principal — had checked her pulse. No one had retrieved the defibrillator machines. The officer tried to perform CPR, but stopped after less than 20 seconds.When paramedics arrived nearly 20 minutes after Kaleiah collapsed, they began CPR, but it was too late. Just 16, she died an hour later at a nearby hospital.Those are the allegations in a new lawsuit the girl’s family has filed against the city of Newport News, its school board, and the half-dozen or so Menchville High School educators who were there after Kaleiah lost consciousness that day. “The defendants’ gross negligence and willful and wanton negligence to...

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