Bus crash: L.A. schools wait word on students in fatal accident

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy on Friday provided an updated list of 14 Los Angeles Unified campuses with students on the bus involved in a fatal crash Thursday night near Orland, Calif. Deasy said he did not know if any students from those schools were among the five killed.

“We’re very worried about the condition of a number of students,” he said in an interview, declining to elaborate further.

Five adults died in the fiery crash, including the driver of the bus.

The high school students were headed to Humboldt State University for a visit organized by the college.

The schools listed by Deasy were: Banning, Carson, Chatsworth, Chavez School for Social Justice, Dorsey, Fremont, Grant, Manual Arts, Middle College, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools and Wilson.

Also on Deasy’s list were three charter schools, which are authorized but not operated by L.A. Unified. Two are run by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools: They are Alliance Media Arts and Entertainment Design High School and Alliance Judy Ivie Burton Technology Academy High School. The other charter is Animo Jackie Robinson, which is operated by Green Dot Public Schools.

There also were students from other school systems on the trip, including from Long Beach, El Monte and Riverside.

Joining Deasy at a noon news conference was L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and four members of the Board of Education. Deasy thanked Garcetti for helping arrange public and private transportation so that family members and district staff could get to the scene of the tragedy, 480 miles away.

“A city mourns today; a state mourns,” said Garcetti, who also spoke briefly in Spanish.

Deasy noted that many of the students were likely the first in their family with an opportunity to attend college.

“It’s the joy of LAUSD,” he said of such milestones. And college visits, he added, help students make the crucial leap to visualizing themselves as college students.

“That is what this activity is about,” he said of the trip. “It is incredibly important, which makes this all the more painful.”

“We share the grief of families in this community.”

In an earlier news conference near the accident scene, LAUSD Deputy Supt. Michelle King said her contingent included 11 counselors. Teams also were dispatched to every affected school.

Deasy vowed that every survivor would be contacted by L.A. Unified staff by the end of the day. He said efforts to establish contact with some families were still underway.

“We will put all our energy into supporting these families, now and going forward,” Deasy said.

Investigators combing through the wreckage said they do not yet know what caused the driver of a FedEx truck to veer across a freeway median and hit the students’ bus head-on.

The first call about the crash came in about 5:40 p.m. Thursday, said California Highway Patrol Cmdr. Bruce Carpenter. The bus was already fully engulfed in flames by the time first responders arrived, he said.

Carpenter said 31 people were transported to seven hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to critical. Nine people were pronounced dead at the scene, and another died later of severe burns.

The final body was removed from the scene early Friday morning, officials said.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Twitter: @howardblume