California school district to pay $27M to family of 13-year-old fatally beaten by 2 fellow students
A school district in Southern California has agreed to pay $27 million to the family of a 13-year-old boy who was beaten to death by two fellow students outside his middle school four years ago.
The settlement with the Moreno Valley Unified School District was announced Wednesday by an attorney for the victim’s family. The boy, Diego Stoltz, was brutally beaten by two 14-year-old boys on Sept. 16, 2019 and died nine days later from a brain injury.
In the terrifying incident, which was recorded on cellphone video, the two young attackers — also students at Landmark Middle School in Moreno Valley — were seen punching the 13-year-old victim, with one of them hitting Stoltz in the head from behind. That strike led the victim to fall and hit his head against a pillar. Both assailants then continued to punch Stoltz.
The beating, which eventually led to Stoltz’s death, could have been prevented if the school had an anti-bullying policy in place, according to Dave Ring, the family’s attorney.
“Schools need to realize that bullying can never be tolerated and that any complaints of bullying and assault must be taken seriously,” Ring said Wednesday in a news release.
According to the wrongful death lawsuit, Stoltz had complained to the assistant principal that he was being targeted by bullies at school.
The two assailants, who weren’t named because of their age at the time, later admitted to involuntary manslaughter and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury.
They spent 47 days in juvenile custody. A judge later declined to sentence them to more time in jail and placed them on probation. They were released back into the custody of their parents and ordered to undergo 150 hours of community service, enroll in therapy and attend a character-building program.
With News Wire Services
