Student dies 9 days after campus attack at Moreno Valley Landmark Middle School

The 13-year-old boy whose head hit a pillar during what authorities called an attack by two other students at Moreno Valley Landmark Middle School has been pronounced clinically dead.

The boy, identified as Diego, was hospitalized after the Sept. 16 incident and died from his injuries, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

“Preparations by Diego’s family are underway for organ donation to transform this tragedy into the gift of life for other children,” the agency said.

The decision to pronounce Diego dead was made Tuesday night, Sept. 24.

The Moreno Valley Unified School District said it will provide counselors and support personnel at the school to help any student, employee or family member cope with the grief, along with extra security at the school.

Some in the community reacted with anger Wednesday, calling for school board members to resign.

One of them was Karla Palumbo, a mother who organized a walkout from the school Friday and spoke out Tuesday night against the school board during its regular meeting.

“It was expected, but it really hurts,” she said Wednesday of Diego’s death. “It angers me, more than anything, that it takes a child to have to lose their life for them to step up.”

The school board, she said, “needs to resign.”

Alicia Espinoza, who’s been a critic of the school board, said the board “failed Diego … if I was a school board member, I would step down.”

A planned community meeting scheduled for Thursday evening was cancelled. The district will instead hold a remembrance ceremony for Diego at the school. It’s planned to start at 6 p.m.

The incident prompted outrage over purported bullying at the school and fear from students’ parents. Administrators have said the two students arrested in connection with the attack on Diego were honors students and face assault charges.

The two 13-year-old students remained in custody Wednesday at Riverside County Juvenile Hall. The boys face prosecution for the assault; officials have not said if the charges against the two have been increased because of Diego’s death.

“This is a life-changing tragedy for everyone involved, including the staff and students at Landmark Middle School,” Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez said.

If a student exhibits violence against another student, “when we find out something, we address it,”  School Superintendent Dr. Martinrex Kedziora said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference outside the school.

“We will make sure the appropriate support, the appropriate consequences, the appropriate measures are taken. … Whenever we learn something, we do something,” he said.

There are 33,000 children in the district, he said, “each of them mean a great deal to each of us.”

Kedziora said actions taken at the school include additional security “that will be here indefinitely,” and having more mental health professionals available. He said officials are working on ways to make it easier for students to report bullying anonymously.

Diego “was not only a brilliant student, his friends also described him as someone whose smile could light up a room,” Kedziora said.