Tragedy spurs potential asthma reform for schools

In death, 13-year-old Adilene Carrasco is having a major impact on the future of how schools across California will manage the safety of students with asthma.

Not only did lead lawyer Robert S. Glassman and colleagues from Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi LLP and The Claypool Law Firm achieve a $15.75 million wrongful death settlement for Carrasco's mother, Edith Sepulveda, after Carrasco succumbed following an asthma attack at school. The legal team also managed to structure the deal to require the school district to institute sweeping safety reforms for the oversight of asthmatic students.

"The client wanted real change, and we saw a great need for improved asthma education," said Glassman, who worked with his firm's Erika Contreras and the lawyers who originated the case, Brian E. Claypool and Nathalie Vallejos.

"Any time you have an important issue like this involving student safety, it puts an enormous pressure on you to live up to the expectations of your client," Glassman added.

"The case was personal to me because I have asthma myself," Claypool said. "This is a condition that needs to be taken seriously."

The changes they negotiated include staff training by a pulmonologist, the affirmation and acknowledgment of students with identified medical conditions and a school linkup with a regional medical center's "Breathmobile" program.

Brian E. Claypool

Adilene Sepulveda died in late 2019 when a teacher mishandled her asthma attack and obviously worsening condition by having the girl walk to get aid. The eighth-grader went into full respiratory distress, lost consciousness, suffered cardiac arrest and died several days later.

Glassman and colleagues pointed out that she'd possibly still be alive if her teacher had read her red-flagged student profile or if administrators had made the staff aware of her asthma action plan.

Glassman was a month from trial when he put all his evidence before a mediator. A pediatric pulmonologist from Harvard Medical School testified that by having Adilene walk to the nurse's office, the teacher worsened the severity of the attack, which caused her death.

"It was a shock to me when we learned in depos about the lack of communication between administrators and teachers," Vallejos said. "We tried to put that across.

Nathalie Vallejos

The settlement followed. "We put on our case as if we were at trial," Glassman said. "Our conscious strategy was to settle so that we could insist on nonmonetary terms beyond a big number. That's a major advantage to settling -- you retain a lot of control over the deal." Sepulveda v. Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, CIVDS2016435 (S. Bernardino Co. Super. Ct., filed July 30, 2020).

Fallout from the case continues. Glassman wrote and called his client's state senator, who helped create and promote SB 283, Adilene's Law. If adopted, the bill would require California schools to implement a comprehensive asthma management plan.

"If a case shines a light on a problem, you can take it further," Glassman summed up.

- JOHN ROEMER