Insets: The "busted" school gate that fell on Arizona honor student Arlette Chavira, 9, and crushed her to death just days after a work order was allegedly filed to fix it (Pima County Sheriff's Office). Background: Police at the Arizona elementary school where Arlette Chavira was killed (KOLD/YouTube).
An Arizona honor student who "liked to help out at school" was killed by a "busted" campus gate that fell on the 9-year-old — "crushing her skull" in front of the girl's 7-year-old sister — as she helped a staffer close it, a lawsuit says.
Flowing Wells Unified School District in Tucson reached a settlement last week with Arlette Chavira's parents, Sergio Chavira and Luz Encinas, after they filed a $15 million claim against it for their daughter's 2023 death, according to online court records.
The notice of claim, which was filed in April 2024, describes how Arlette had just met up with her sister and was walking across the courtyard at Centennial Elementary School to meet their mother at the nearby junior high where she works when the pair noticed a rolling gate that was open.
"Arlette and her seven-year-old sister liked to help out at school. They would frequently give the maintenance staff a hand with all sorts of tasks," the claim says. "As they were leaving school, the little girls saw Centennial Elementary's [custodial manager] outside near the rolling metal gate near the dumpsters on the west side of the school. Seeing that the gate was still open, and knowing that the gate was supposed to be closed after school, young Arlette and her sister asked [the custodial manager] if they could help him close it, as they had done many times before."
According to the claim, the school worker allegedly accepted their offer to help and had them pull on "the heavy gate" with him to roll it closed. As Arlette and her sister were pulling on the gate, it rolled past the "stop bar" and came off its tracks, falling on Arlette and "crushing her skull," the document says.
"Arlette's sister was able to jump out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by the gate, as she watched the gate crush Arlette's head," the claim says. "[The custodial manager] tried to lift the gate off of Arlette but was unable to do so by himself."
Nearby fathers of other students quickly jumped into action and helped lift the gate off of Arlette while someone else called 911, according to the claim. A witness who tried to help before paramedics arrived reported that Arlette was "bleeding profusely from her nose and mouth."
The witness account was obtained from an incident report filed by the Pima County Sheriff's Office, which was included in the claim notice.
"While on route to the hospital, Arlette is reported to have coded and the paramedics had to shock her three times with negative response," the claim says. "The paramedics gave chest compressions and continued performing chest compressions even while wheeling her on the gurney into the emergency room."
Arlette was pronounced dead at the hospital. Her father picked up her "traumatized" 7-year-old sister at the school and then "raced to the hospital" to be with her mom who had traveled there from the school after being alerted by staff, the claim says.
"This deadly, devastating event was entirely preventable," according to the court document. "[The custodial manager] clearly knew that the subject gate's stop bar was in disrepair and posed a hazard, as he had submitted a maintenance request to repair the gate on November 8, 2023 — nine days before the deadly incident."
A copy of the maintenance request was attached to the claim, with the custodial manager reporting that he "saw there was a weld that had a crack on it, so he submitted a work order to the main district since that was not inside his capable realm. … It had not been completed yet. He did not realize it was that bad," per the claim.
Police probed what happened and an investigator reported in the PCSO incident report that "there was a bar that was supposed to stick out horizontal from the vertical gate" but it appeared that "either the welding or the metal crack were busted, and it was bent in a different position." The custodial manager told police that he "saw there was a weld that had a crack on it, so he submitted a work order to the main district since that was not inside his capable realm," according to the incident report.
"They would have to get a specialist out to the school to have it done," the report says. "He did not realize it was that bad. He only noticed it was bent a little bit. He said he did not even hear or see the stopper hit the stop area, it just went past the stop bar when the incident happened."
Photos included in the claim show "significant rust on the stop bar" that is evidence of the gate being "clearly in disrepair" before Arlette's death, according to the document.
"FWUSD was negligent and careless by failing to repair the subject gate and its stop bar before it became a deadly hazard and/or by failing to order that the gate not be used while it was in disrepair," the claim concludes. "In addition, [the custodial manager] was negligent and careless by failing to ensure that the subject gate was repaired and in safe working order before allowing Arlette, her sister or any other students near the gate."
The claim adds that the custodial manager "should have stopped the little girls from going anywhere near the gate, as he knew it was in disrepair." But instead, he "encouraged" the siblings to help him, per the claim.
"What began as a regular Friday afternoon turned into a parent's worst nightmare, a sister's perpetual horror, and the last day of young Arlette's life," the claim says. "Arlette was a bright young girl who got good grades and was on the honor roll … and took pride in her school. … The Chavira family will never be the same after losing young Arlette."
FWUSD officials did not respond to Law&Crime's requests for comment Tuesday.
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