School Fight Caused Death of Boy, 13, Coroner Says

The boy who died in a fight at a Palmdale middle school 11 weeks ago was killed as a result of a punch thrown by another student, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Friday.

An autopsy ruled out any preexisting health conditions or accidental factors, such as an accidental fall, as the cause of 13-year-old Stephan Corson’s death, said Scott Carrier, a coroner’s spokesman.

“This was not an accident but a homicide that happened during an assault,” he said. “Doctors were unable to determine if the blow caused his death or if it was the fall. But we do know that he wouldn’t have fallen unless he was hit.”

The incident has troubled many in Palmdale, not only because a boy was killed in school but because his family has raised concerns about racism playing a role in the handling of the case. Stephan was black and the other boy is white.

Juvenile prosecutors will now examine whether Stephan’s death was a lawful or unlawful homicide, said Victoria Pipkin, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. A homicide committed in self-defense can be lawful.

Citing witness accounts, sheriff’s investigators say they believe that Stephan started the fight with the other student after class. The 14-year-old punched Stephan in the face and knocked him to the ground, where he hit his chin on the sidewalk.

The 14-year-old’s father, who spoke with a reporter Thursday night for the first time since the fight, insisted that his son tried to avoid the confrontation.

The boy--shy and small for his age--is afraid of fighting, the father said, and was terrified to step outside the classroom at Juniper Intermediate School where Stephan was waiting for him.

“But when he got outside and this other kid started pounding him, he hit back,” said the father, whose name is being withheld to protect the privacy of his son. “The thing I can’t get over is that my son got the crap beaten out of him that day. You should have seen all the bruises and the black eye. Nobody can understand how Stephan died.”

The coroner’s report says acute spinal cord injury from blunt force trauma caused the death. Lab tests, one factor that delayed release of final autopsy results until Friday, showed microscopic hemorrhaging at the top of Stephan’s spinal cord. That was caused either directly by the punch or by Stephan slamming his chin onto the sidewalk after he was hit and having his head snap back, Carrier said.

Mary Corson, Stephan’s mother, filed a $10-million wrongful death claim against the Palmdale School District on Thursday, saying the district was negligent in allowing the fight to take place. Learning of the coroner’s finding Friday, she said, “I just can’t hear it right now, I just can’t. I’m all by myself, and I can’t deal with this right now.”

Corson and others have criticized the district and the Sheriff’s Department for what they see as lenient treatment of the other boy because he is white.

“Maybe now Stephan will get the justice he deserves,” said black activist Najee Ali, who has held rallies in Stephan’s name.

The fight began in a seventh-period science class, the last class of the day, when the 14-year-old was reprimanded by a substitute teacher for throwing spitballs, according to Sheriff’s Det. Barry Wish.

When the boy went to clean up his mess, Stephan tossed some scraps of paper on the floor and told him to pick them up too, Wish said.

The boy refused, the two started arguing and Stephan vowed to settle the dispute after class, the detective said. When class let out, Stephan attacked the other boy in front of 25 students, Wish said.

As a teacher struggled to pry them apart, the boy felled Stephan with a blow to the chin. Stephan died at a hospital 40 minutes later.

The other boy was immediately removed from school, pending expulsion. Last month, the school board decided to expel him, though the expulsion was then suspended, paving the way for him to return to an alternative school in the district.

Since the fight, the boy, who has been staying with his mother in Ventura County, has been haunted by nightmares of accidentally killing his friends, his father said.

A few weeks ago, while father and son were folding laundry, the boy started crying, apparently having come across the pants he wore the day of the fight.

“This kid has no idea what is going to happen to him, and he’s terrified,” the father said. “He can’t go a day without completely breaking down.”