LOS ANGELES—A judge has denied a bid by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to dismiss wholly or in part a lawsuit filed by the mother of a 15-year-old girl who died of a drug overdose in a high school restroom in 2022, finding that there were triable issues for a jury.
Plaintiff Elena Perez’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges that Bernstein High School officials knew there was a problem with drug use at the Hollywood campus, but took no action that could have saved her daughter, Melanie Ramos. The coroner’s report stated that Melanie died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl on Sept. 13, 2022.
In court papers filed previously with Judge Lisa R. Jaskol, LAUSD lawyers contended the Bernstein High administration did not fail Perez or her daughter and that both the district and the administrators have immunity from Perez’s causes of action.
But in her ruling Monday denying the LAUSD’s motion, the judge said that between 2013 and the fall semester of 2022, several medical emergencies related to drug use took place at the Bernstein campus and that three of the medical emergencies involving drug use occurred six months before Melanie died.
One student witnessed other students taking such drugs as percocet and xanax in Bernstein’s bathrooms prior to Ramos’ death, the judge further wrote.
In their court papers, LAUSD attorneys said that being a high school principal is a “hard job” and that it is “self-evident that no administrator can be an insurer and guarantee that injury will never happen to any student. That sort of 20-20 hindsight is not reasonable.”
Bernstein Principal Alejandro Ramirez and Assistant Principal Andrew Kasek created a plan that includes monitoring the hallways, restrooms and quad, and Ramirez had a separate strategy to address student absenteeism, the district lawyers further state. Nonetheless, Melanie and a friend snorted fentanyl inside a bathroom stall in the quad, according to the LAUSD lawyers’ pleadings.
“It is undisputed that no school district employee knew that [Melanie] and [her friend] were going to purchase illicit drugs nor did any School District employee know that they were later going to consume the drugs in a bathroom stall,” the district lawyers contended in their court papers.
In Kasek’s judgment, a locked bathroom door in mid-afternoon at the end of the school day did not pose a safety concern and such was the case when he walked through the quad area the day of Melanie’s death, according to the district lawyers’ court papers, which further state that Melanie’s body was found at about 8:30 p.m. in the girls’ quad restroom by a custodial worker.
Kasek had a female aide accompany him on his walks if one was available, but he was alone that day, the LAUSD attorneys further state.
Melanie’s friend had overdose symptoms, but survived. Days later, police announced the arrest of a teenage boy who allegedly sold the drug to the two students on the Bernstein campus, and a second teen boy was arrested for allegedly peddling drugs to another student at nearby Lexington Park.
Then-Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said both suspects were students at APEX Academy charter school, which is located on the Bernstein High School campus.
The teen’s death also prompted the district to announce that all of its campuses would be supplied with the anti-overdose medication Narcan. Gov. Gavin Newsom subsequently signed into law SB 10, known as Melanie’s Law, requiring public schools to train employees on opioid prevention techniques and response, and to increase awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.
Perez sued the district for negligence and wrongful death in December 2022. The trial in the case is scheduled for April 2, 2025.
