Family members say a teacher ignored a 12-year-old’s pleas for help before he died after being forced to run during sweltering heat at his Riverside County middle school.
Yahshua Robinson suffered a medical emergency Tuesday around 11 a.m. during his physical education class at Canyon Lake Middle School in Lake Elsinore. The temperature at the time was in the low- to mid-90 degrees.
Amarna Plummer said her nephew hadn’t dressed appropriately for P.E. and was told to run for not doing so. She said, according to other students, Yahshua started feeling ill.
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Read: Community gathers to mourn middle school student
"He was reaching out to the teacher, saying he needed some water. He said he couldn't breathe. He was telling the kids this,” Plummer said.
Yahshua’s condition got worse, and he passed out on the field, Plummer said. Emergency responders arrived a short time later, but Yahshua was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, leaving his family devastated and furious.
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"Why would you have a child in his clothes – he didn't dress out – running a field?” Plummer said.
Plummer said Yahshua’s mother is a P.E. instructor at a different school in the district. According to Plummer, her sister-in-law warned school administrators about the dangerous heat, though it’s unclear to whom she filed this complaint.
"She informs the administration, ‘Do not let any children go out today for P.E.’ And what happened? She gets a call he passed out on the field,” Plummer said.
A Lake Elsinore Unified School District spokesperson said they could not give specific details about Yahshua’s death. NBC4 asked if the boy was not in his P.E. clothing but did not hear back.
The district initially released a statement saying it was “saddened” to confirm the death “of one of our students due to a medical emergency at one of our LEUSD campuses.” It added that grief counselors are helping students and staff.
The district released another statement on Sept. 7. It read:
“While clarifying misinformation circulating and causing confusion, we remain sensitive to the family and their need for as much respect and privacy as possible.
At this time, we can confirm that the students in the PE class were participating in routine activities outdoors. Students were dressed in PE attire and at no time were students penalized by running for not being dressed out for PE. All students in class participated in a warmup run that lasted approximately less than 1 minute and no one was denied water. When our student showed signs of physical distress, staff took prompt action to attend to the student and called emergency services.
Once again, we release this information for clarification and out of abundance of care for our students, our families, and our staff. We continue to cooperate with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on the investigation.”
Plummer said before the district's statement that someone needs to be held accountable for Yahshua's death.
"This is terrible. It happened on somebody else's watch,” she said.
