The mother of Emmanuel “Manny” Perez, an autistic student who suffered fatal injuries in a golf cart crash at El Modena High School in September, has taken legal action against the school district responsible for ensuring her son’s safety. Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP attorneys Rahul Ravipudi and Robert Glassman represent Plaintiff Micaela Sanchez Corona in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Orange Unified School District (OUSD) following the tragic death of her oldest son, claiming the District not only failed in keeping the campus safe for its students, but staff and personnel on site with Manny that day were negligent in their duty to take reasonable steps to protect him from harm.
On September 9, 2019, Manny sat down in an unsecured and unsupervised OUSD owned and controlled motorized golf cart on the campus of El Modena High School and unfortunately, crashed into a railing a short distance away. As a result of the incident, the 15-year-old special needs student suffered significant chest and abdominal trauma and succumbed to his injuries later that day.
As alleged in the complaint, this senseless tragedy “resulted from the District’s negligence in not only failing to properly supervise and control Manny but also failing to secure and disable the golf cart before Manny – who suffers from severe autism and behavior issues – was able to get inside and endanger himself and others.”
“Manny’s death was preventable,” Ms. Sanchez said. “I want schools caring for students with autism, or any student with special needs, to implement safety guidelines and provide training for school staff so that incidents like Manny’s don’t happen again. No parent should suffer this type of loss or the pain that I feel. I want justice for Manny.”
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