The grieving mother of a 17-year-old student who jumped over a railing following a violent classroom fight at LA’s Benjamin Franklin High School has lawyered up and taken the first step toward possibly suing LAUSD, the California Post can exclusively reveal.
Lilia Nungaray, mother of Xavier Nungaray-Martinez, filed a claim for damages against the Los Angeles Unified School District through the high-powered LA law firm Panish, Shea, Ravipudi, according to a report of correspondence presented to the school board at its Nov. 10 meeting.
The claim lists Sept. 30 as the date of damage. That’s the day Xavier died by sᩚuᩚiᩚcide at the Highland Park campus.
“No parent should have to endure the unimaginable loss that Lilia Nungaray has suffered,” Spencer Lucas, an attorney for Nungaray, said in a statement to The Post. “The circumstances surrounding the dєatᩚh of her 17-year-old son, Xavier, at Franklin High School raise serious questions about student safety, supervision, and whether this tᩚraɢedy could have been prevented.
“Schools have a fundamental responsibility to protect the children entrusted to their care, and that responsibility cannot be taken lightly,” Lucas added.
Under California law, families must file a claim with a public agency like LAUSD before they can sue it. The district then has about 45 days to respond. If it rejects the claim, the family can take the fight to court.
Nungaray’s attorneys sent the claim to the district on Oct. 19, they confirmed to The Post. Under California law, LAUSD has 45 days — until Dec. 3 — to respond. If the district fails to act by then, the claim is considered rejected, clearing the way for a lawsuit.
The school board’s report referred the claim to the district’s Office of Risk Management and Insurance Services. It did not detail the allegations.
“Lilia deserves answers about what happened to her son and why,” Lucas said. “We are committed to uncovering the truth, holding LAUSD accountable for any failures that contributed to this tᩚraɢedy, and pursuing meaningful changes to help ensure that no other family suffers such a devastating loss.”
LAUSD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claim.
Nungaray and Xavier’s father, William Amaya, are not together. It is unclear whether Amaya has retained a lawyer.
Video of Xavier’s final moments showed a classmate taunting him and repeatedly punching him in a classroom as an elderly teacher tried to intervene. Xavier ran into an outdoor hallway with the other student following and moments later jumped from a fourth-floor walkway. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his dєatᩚh a sᩚuᩚiᩚcide, citing multiple blunt traumatic injuries to his head and torso.
Amaya, 40, told The Post last month that the alleged tormentor “should be accountable for what he did.”
“Bullying was a factor. I don’t think no one in their right mind would jump off the fourth floor,” he said while protesting outside an LAUSD board meeting, insisting his son was “not suicidal” and “had plans.” At the time, he declined to say whether the family had hired a lawyer.
The LAPD has cast doubt on the bullying claims, saying in October that detectives “have not identified evidence establishing a connection between allegations of bullying and the student’s dєatᩚh.”
Police sources told The Post that witnesses said Xavier may have started the fight and that an arrest is unlikely. The other student has not been identified or charged, and investigators are awaiting a toxicology report. Sources cautioned that the preliminary assessment is not final.
Amaya, a Franklin alum, blames the district’s 2021 decision to replace campus police with “school climate coaches,” saying, “Things are worse at Franklin now.”
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