Boy Who Died After Fistfight at Palmdale School Is Identified

The 13-year-old boy who died after a fistfight at his middle school Friday has been identified as Steven Corson of Palmdale, authorities said Saturday.

Corson and another eighth-grader got into a fight after class at Juniper Intermediate School. As a teacher’s aide tried to break them up, Steven fell and hit his head on the sidewalk, school officials said. He went into cardiac arrest and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives are awaiting autopsy results before deciding how to proceed, said Deputy Joan Raber, a department spokeswoman.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said a preliminary autopsy did not reveal a cause of death. Results from a final autopsy could take four to six weeks.

Raber said the other boy involved in the fight, whose name authorities declined to release, has not been taken into custody or charged with a crime.

Palmdale School District Supt. Nancy Smith, who said the death appeared unintentional, said Saturday that sheriff’s investigators interviewed the 14-year-old boy at length before letting him go home with his father Friday night.

Smith said the student will not be permitted to return to class until school officials hold a hearing to consider whether he should be suspended--the district’s standard procedure for dealing with students involved in fights.

She said the school district is also planning to collect donations to help Steven’s mother, a single parent, pay for his funeral. The boy was new at the school, Smith said, and most teachers and students did not know him very well.