Keyonna Stewart, a Black mother, has spent eight months in unbearable pain. Her life changed the day her 16-year-old daughter, Kaleiah Jones, collapsed and died at Menchville High School in Newport News, Virginia.
Though Kaleiah suffered from bradycardia, a slow heart rate, according to local media, she always had a smile on her face. She was “a happy baby, walking and exploring life at eight months old,” her mother said at a news conference held on Oct. 17.
Kaleiah was a high school sophomore who had big goals and dreams. She loved baking, babysitting the neighborhood children, feeding the homeless, volunteering in the infant wing at church and serving the Lord and others.
“She is and she was a great kid, a great person, great daughter and a great sister. Without Kaleiah, our lives are drastically changed,” Ms. Stewart said.
Kaleiah’s family filed an $85 million wrongful death lawsuit on Oct. 17 against the Newport News School Board, the city of Newport News and several high school employees, including a nurse, a school resource officer, a teacher, administrators and security officers.
Family and attorneys say the teen’s death could have been prevented if school officials acted sooner and carried out medical emergency training per Virginia law.
The family is being represented by civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Mark Krudys.
On Feb. 20, Kaleiah Jones walked out of her driver’s education class laughing and smiling with friends when she collapsed in her high school’s hallway. Her heart stopped, and she was not breathing, the lawsuit obtained by The Final Call says.
Students rushed to get help, and several school personnel arrived at the scene.
Attorneys viewed video footage at the school and discovered that no aid was rendered to Kaleiah for nine minutes. Eventually, the school resource officer performed CPR, but only for 17 seconds.
No one took over after he stopped, and no one went to get any of the school’s three automated external defibrillators (AEDs), according to the lawsuit. AEDs are devices that deliver an electronic shock to help the heart return to a normal rhythm.
“For the next seven minutes, Kaleiah lay unaided and dying on the hallway floor,” the lawsuit says.
Over 16 total minutes passed before EMS arrived on the scene. By then, Kaleiah was reported to have no pulse and not breathing.
“When the rescue squad arrives, I believe it shows them to be perplexed and angry,” Atty. Krudys with The Krudys Law Firm said at the Oct. 17 press conference.
Upon arrival, EMS performed CPR and asked to be brought an AED. Kaleiah was transported to the hospital after EMS attempted several life-saving methods. Over 90 minutes after her collapse, she was pronounced dead.
“The Defendants’ gross negligence and willful and wanton negligence to Kaleiah’s acute medical needs caused her death. Had the Defendants promptly commenced CPR and/or used the AED, Kaleiah would have survived,” the lawsuit says.
In April 2023, Virginia made it mandatory for schools to have AEDs. State law also requires school officials and personnel, including resource officers, nurses, teachers and administrators, to be CPR-certified and trained in the use of AEDs. School security officers are required to have basic first-aid training.
Ms. Stewart was not informed of her daughter’s situation until her boyfriend, who received a call from the school nurse, relayed the information.
“She rushed to the … hospital, only to find out that at that point, her daughter had passed away,” Atty. Krudys said.
The news conference was an emotional moment for Ms. Stewart, as she described waking up daily with pain and sorrow.
“There is not a second of any day that goes by where Kaleiah is not a thought on my mind, where her name has not come out of my mouth. I miss her tremendously, and this daily pain is so unbearable,” she said.
“Every morning I wake up wishing this is a nightmare, and I go to Kaleiah’s room only to realize that this nightmare is my new reality that I’m living in every single day. Nothing in life will be the same without her. Our family is left trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces.”
“I’ll never get the opportunity to see Kaleiah fulfill every parent’s dreams of getting her license, of graduating high school or walking down the aisle on her wedding day. I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone, nor can my mind grasp or come to terms with how or why we ended up here,” she continued.
“We’re standing here before you to be the voice of Kaleiah in hopes that no other parent will have to stand in my place as the voice for their child.”
