10 ul 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 David M. Ring (SBN 151124) ‘TAYLOR & RING 1230 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 360 Manhattan Beach, California 90266 Tel: (310) 209-4100 Attorneys for Claimants, JUANA SALCEDO and FELIPE SALCEDO SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE JUANA SALCEDO and FELIPE SALCEDO, individually and as successors in interest to DIEGO STOL Case No. GOVERNMENT TORT CLAIM FOR WRONGFUL DEATH OF A MINOR AGAINST MORENO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Claimants, MORENO-VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, a public entity; and DOES | through 60 Defendants. TO DEFENDANT MORENO-VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, a public entity: Claimants JUANA AND FELIPE SALCEDO hereby present a GOVERNMENT TORT CLAIM FOR DAMAGES against said public entity and its administrators and employees as a result of the wrongful death of Diego Stolz, who was 13-years old when he was killed as a result of being /bulled and punched by two boys at Landmark Middle School on Monday, September 16, 2019. Claimants seek damages of $100 million for the loss of Diego.10 u B 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ‘The Claim is based upon the following: 1, Diego Stolz. was 13-years old and in eighth grade at Landmark Middle School during, ithe 2019-2020 school year. 2. Juana and Felipe Salcedo are Diego's aunt and uncle who have known him and helped raised him since he was born, Diego's parents are deceased. His mother died in 2007. Diego and his, father lived with the Salcedos starting in 2007. Diego was a toddler. The Salcedos helped Diego's father raise Diego. Then, Diego's father died in 2014, The Salcedos then became the legal guardians of Diego after his father passed away. 3. By the start of middle school, Diego lived with Juana and Felipe in Moreno Valley. Diego attended Landmark Middle Schoo! for sixth, seventh and eighth grades. 4, Landmark Middle School is part of Moreno Valley Unified School District 5, The principal of Landmark is Scott Walker. Kamilah O'Connor is an assistant principal at Landmark. 6. Diego was a normal 13-year old boy; he liked soccer, music, hiking and video games. He was a good student. He had a lot of friends 7. During seventh grade in 2018-2019, Diego was repeatedly bullied, both verbally and physically, by other boys at the school. Some of Diego's personal belongings were taken by these bullies during the school year. Diego's guardian, Juana, made several complaints to the school's administrators about the bullying of Diego. The bullying continued. Juana felt as if her complaints were never taken seriously by school administrators. 8. Atthe beginning of eighth grade, in September 2019, Diego continued to be bullied by boys at the school.10 u 12 B 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 9. On Thursday, September 12, 2019, Diego was again seriously harassed and bullied, both verbally and physically, to the point that he sought help from a science teacher. On that day, Diego had been punched in the chest by at least one bully. Diego was very emotional and upset after this incident, ‘The teacher reported the incident to Landmark's administration, specifically to Ms. ‘O'Connor, the assistant principal. The teacher told Ms. O'Connor that the bullying incident was very likely recorded on the school's security cameras, and urged Ms. O'Connor to check the security footage because the incident had just occurred that day and the location was known, making it easy to locate the particular camera. O'Connor failed to check the cameras, and apparently did nothing in response to this report. 10. That evening, Diego told members of his family about the incident, Juana Salcedo had |just undergone surgery and was recovering at home, so she asked her adult daughter Jazmin to take Diego and report the incident to the school's administrators the following day. 11, On Friday, September 13, 2019, Jazmin took Diego to Landmark Middle School at the start of the school day. Jazmin and Diego met with the Assistant Principal, Ms. O'Connor. Ms O'Connor made the comment in front of Jazmin that she was intending to meet with Diego that day [because she had received a report from a teacher about his well-being 12, Diego met behind closed doors with O'Connor for approximately 20 minutes. After {the meeting, O'Connor told Jazmin that she had leamed the names of the bullies involved and she }would suspend them for three days, starting Monday, September 16, 2019, She also said that their class schedules would be changed so that they would not be in Diego's class anymore. She also told Jazmin that Diego could go home and miss school that day (Friday) because of the stress he was funder.10 ul 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13. O'Connor asked Jazmin for her name and phone number and wrote it down on an {incident report, Jazmin saw that O'Connor had filled out an incident report during the time she met, with Diego and the report had a lot of writing on it, 14, Jazmin took Diego home that moming. Diego was clearly relieved and seemed much more at ease throughout the day and over the weekend, 15. On Monday, September 16, 2019, Diego returned to school. It tumed out that the bullies had not been suspended, nor had the incident caught on the school's security cameras from the previous Thursday been reviewed, No one from the school told Diego or his guardians any of this. 16. That same day Diego was again confronted by at least two of the same bullies. The incident was recorded on a cellphone's video by another student. The video depicts Diego standing calmly, arms at his side. The first bully stands nose to nose with Diego and is clearly the aggressor. Diego does nothing to escalate the situation. In fact, Diego intentionally places his hands against the front of his thighs in an effort to show he is not willing to fight. The bully steps back, and then without warning sucker punches Diego. Diego staggers backward. Then, without warming, the second bully sucker punches Diego from the side. Diego never saw this punch coming. The punch knocks Diego down to his left, and his head strikes a concrete pillar. Diego suffered a major traumatic brain injury, and never regained consciousness. On the video, the two bullies simply walk away. 17. Diego was taken to a nearby hospital and placed on life support. 18. Nine days later, Diego was pronounced clinically dead and taken off life support. 19. It was only after the September 16, 2019 incident that resulted in Diego's death that school administrators finally went and found the security video footage from the bullying incident of September 12.12 13 “4 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 20. The two boys who sucker punched Diego were arrested and charged in juvenile court with manslaughter. 21. For reasons unknown, it s believed that Assistant Principal O'Connor has not retumed {to the Landmark campus since September 16. 22. It is also believed that Moreno Valley Unified School District has intentionally concealed key evidence from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. For example, itis believed that O'Connor's complete incident report has not been turned over to investigators. ‘The school district has not made O'Connor available to the Sheriff's Department for an interview. 23. Moreno Valley Unified School District and its idle school (Landmark) have repeatedly announced to its students, parents, and others that it is a "Bully-stop 360" school that educates its students, teachers, and parents on bullying and bullying prevention. Yet, the District and its school administrators failed at every turn with respect to the bullying of Diego. It had the opportunity during Diego's seventh grade year to stop the bullying, and failed to do so. And, more notably, it knew that Diego was bullied and physically punched on September 12 and also knew that the bullies intended to beat up Diego soon thereafter, yet the District and its administrators did nothing to prevent this from occurring. Diego died because of the inaction of school district administrators. 24. Moreno Valley Unified School District, acting through its administrators and its employees, is liable to Juana and Felipe Salcedo for the death of Diego, who was like a son to them, because, among other things, the District willfully, recklessly and/or negligently failed to prevent known bullying of a student, and failed to take any reasonable actions to investigate and prevent additional bullying from occurring, despite knowing that the bullies intended to beat up Diego even after the September 12 incident.10 W 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25. The District has a long history of student altercations on its campuses, including at Landmark Middle School, and a long history of doing little or nothing about those altercations. The District failed to enact any effective safety procedures to protect its students. The District failed to enforce its anti-bullying policies. The District negligently supervised its students. The District had a mandatory duty to properly supervise its students on campus, pursuant to the Education Code and other statutes and laws, yet failed to do so. Also, the District violated Diego's civil rights, and his rights under the U.S. Constitution, and his rights under California's Constitution. 26. Claimants lost Diego, who was like a son to them, 27. Claimants seek to recover all damages for the loss of Diego and as a result of the misconduct by Moreno Valley Unified School District, which is estimated to be in the amount of $100 million. 28. Claimants also seek equitable and injunctive relief that mandates the school district jand Landmark Middle School promptly enact and enforce all reasonable and necessary protections to lensure no other student is seriously harmed or killed at the hands of other students and that bullying issues are addressed immediately and effectively. 29. Allnotices and communications with regard to this claim should be sent to the attorney for Claimants, as follows: David M. Ring TAYLOR & RING 1230 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 360 Manhattan Beach, C: Tel: (310) 209-4100 a a /10 i 12 13 14 15 16 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Dated: October 25, 2019 TAYLOR & RING ~ by on Al avid M. Ring ‘Attorneys for Claimants JUANA AND FELIPE SALCEDO, as individuals and as successors in interest to DIEGO STOLZ10 a. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 OF OF SERVICE (C.CP. 1013A, 2015.5) STATE OF CALIFORNIA 1 am employed in the County of Los Angeles, State of California, I am over the age of eighteen ‘years and not a party to the within action; my business address is 1230 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 360, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. October 25, 2019 , [served the foregoing document, described as GOVERNMENT TORT CLAIM FOR WRONGFUL DEATH OF A MINOR AGAINST MORENO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT on the interested parties in this action by placing the true copies thereof enclosed in sealed envelopes addressed as stated on the attached mailing list. XX___ by placing XX___the original _XX__ a true copy enclosed in sealed envelopes addressed as follows: SEE ATTACHED SERVICE LIST BY MAIL I deposited such envelope in the mail at Los Angeles, California, The envelope was mailed with postage thereon fully prepaid. __As follows: I am “readily familiar” with the firm’s practice of collection and processing correspondence for mailing. Under that practice it would be deposited with U.S. postal service on that same day with postage thereon fully prepaid at Manhattan Beach, California in the ordinary course of business. I am aware that on motion of the party served, service is presumed invalid if postal cancellation date or postage meter date is more than one day after date of deposit for mailing affidavit. __ ELECTRONIC DELIVERY — I caused said document to be e-mailed to all parties indicated in the service list. XX_ BY OVERNIGHT DELIVERY - I deposited such envelope for collection and delivery by Overnight Delivery via Federal Express with delivery fees paid or provided for in accordance with ordinary business practices. Executed on October 25,2019 ___, at Manhattan Beach, California. XX__ (State) I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the above is true and correct. SHANN A. MARTIN Sie 4 a10 a 12 13 14 15 16 a7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 SERVICE LIST JUANA SALCEDO and FELIPE SALCEDO, individually and as successors in interest to DIEGO STOLZ vs. MORENO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Martinrex Kedziora, Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools Moreno Valley Unified School District 25634 Alessandro Boulevard /Moreno Valley, CA 92553 Susana Lopez Chief Business Official Business Services Moreno Valley Unified School District 25634 Alessandro Boulevard Moreno Valley, CA 92553