District served with civil lawsuit seeking damages from student death in golf cart accident

We continue to grieve as an educational community over the tragic death of Manny Perez. The golf cart crash was a tragic accident that has saddened everyone at El Modena High School and across the District.   This lawsuit accuses the district of negligence and seeks financial damages. A government claim was filed by Manny’s mother in September. The District chose to not take action on that claim, anticipating today’s civil lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges incorrectly that Manny was left unsupervised and unattended “for an extended period of time” by his instructional assistants. That is simply not the case. Video footage from campus security cameras clearly shows that he was next to his 1:1 aide, in addition to a second aide. When he saw the golf cart, he bolted away from the aides and jumped into the parked golf cart. He was never more than a few feet away from his aides.

These aides immediately attempted to stop Manny and get him to exit the cart. They used their professional training and strategies related to Crisis Prevention Intervention to try to get him to climb out. Once Manny reached over with his foot and depressed the accelerator, the assistants tried to stop the cart from moving forward. Again, video footage reveals that they tried to physically hold onto the cart and prevent it from moving.

Following the crash, campus staff quickly followed protocol, examined Manny, and called 911. Manny was transported to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Orange Unified worked in full cooperation with the Orange Police Department as they completed a motor vehicle accident report, which is standard procedure. At this time no criminal charges have been filed and the investigating officers concluded that this was simply a tragic accident.

Further information is contained in a District statement on the website: https://www.orangeusd.org/about-us/news/release-article/~board/2019/post/news-media-update-by-superintendent-gunn-marie-hansen-phd-september-13-2019