Boy, 13, Dies in Fistfight After School

A fistfight between students at Juniper Intermediate School turned deadly Friday afternoon when one of the youths, a 13-year-old Palmdale boy, collapsed and later died at a hospital, authorities said.

The fight broke out between two boys after school in a campus quad as students headed to buses waiting to take them home, said Palmdale School District Supt. Nancy Smith. The two eighth-graders argued, cursed and traded punches.

Sgt. Norine Plett of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that as a teacher’s aide tried to break up the fight, one of the boys fell.

“Just as the last couple of punches were thrown, the victim fell to the ground,” Plett said. “Whether he hit his head, we don’t know. He went into some kind of convulsions.”

Witnesses said the boy hit his head when he fell forward onto a sidewalk, according to Smith.

Char Kramer, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said a 2 p.m. call from the school reported that the boy was in full cardiac arrest.

Smith said a teacher and a health aide performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the youth until paramedics arrived. He was then taken to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

“At this point, it does not seem to have been intentional,” Smith said. “While the fistfight was wrong, and we never allow students to fight . . . I think it was a real unfortunate outcome that was one in a million. I feel very sorry for both families.”

Authorities declined to release the names of the victim and the other student, a 14-year-old from Palmdale.

Smith said that, as far as she knew, the victim had no prior medical problems. She also said the boys were not known to be enemies. “It appears to be just something that flared up,” Smith said.

Because the death was preceded by a fight, the Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Unit has opened an investigation into the case. Investigators were interviewing the older boy, Plett said, but he had not been taken into custody.

Several psychologists will be on the 1,100-student campus Monday to help children--some of whom witnessed the fight--cope with their classmate’s death, Smith said.