NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The family of Menchville sophomore Kaleiah "Mo" Jones, who died after collapsing at school in February, is filing an $85 million wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit is against Newport News Public Schools (the Newport News School Board is the legal entity), the City of Newport News, and individual school personnel they claim could have helped save Jones' life.
The family’s attorneys announced the suit at a press conference Thursday. They were joined by Jones’ mother Keyonna Stewart, her sister, and other loved ones. They held pictures of Jones and wiped away tears as the attorneys outlined how, allegedly, only one person rendered aid to her for 17 seconds in the 16 minutes she was down following the collapse and no one used an AED.
"Today and forever my heart is broken. I wake up daily with the pain and sorrow that my sweet baby girl is not with me on this journey called life," Keyonna Stewart said about the loss of her 16-year-old daughter. "I will never get the opportunity to see Kaleiah fulfill every parent's dreams of getting her license, graduating high school, or walking down the aisle on her wedding day."
She said Jones loved baking, babysitting, feeding the homeless and volunteering in the infant wing at church.
Ben Crump–a nationally known trial lawyer who has represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor–and Virginia-based lawyer Mark Krudys are representing the Jones family. Both specialize in civil rights.
Among the listed defendants are Newport News School Board Chairman Lisa Surles-Law, City Attorney Collin Owens Jr., a registered nurse, Menchville High School personnel, and school security officers.
The suit accuses the school personnel of negligence, saying the personnel on scene had a duty to act when Jones collapsed.
Krudys said the prosecution has seen a video of Jones’ collapse and the aftermath. He clarified that the video hasn’t been released to the public or the prosecuting attorneys, but they were able to go to the school and view it.
He said the video allegedly shows Kaleiah collapse against a locker and fall to the ground. He claimed the video showed her twitching, then she stops moving.
He argued that almost immediately, word went out that a student collapsed in the hallway. A number of people responded but failed to act, he claimed.
"It's not until the passage of nine minutes that the school resource officer spontaneously starts CPR on Kaleiah and then unfathomably 17 seconds after just stops. Then seven more minutes pass before the rescue squad arrives at the school . . . And nobody obtains the AED, there are three of them in that school, and none of them were brought to the scene," said Krudys. "This is the perfect circumstance for an AED to be utilized. A relatively healthy young person and all her heart was needing was an electrical charge."
"Seconds matter. Time is of essence. We got defibrillators for this specific instance. That is why they made the law," said Crump.
The suit says state laws require licensed professionals in a school to know CPR and have experience in operating an AED.
Watch: Attorneys say school personnel 'failed to act' after Menchville student collapsed
As News 3 has previously reported, Jones suffered from Bradycardia, or a slow heart rate — something her family said the school knew.
Crump says he wants the alleged inaction from school officials and staff to serve as a learning lesson for Newport News, and the state.
“[At school], people are supposed to take care of her, make sure she’s safe, and at minimum, follow the state laws, follow the policies and regulations at the school and at most, follow common sense,” said Crump.
He continued, “It’s common sense. A person passes out, you check for a pulse. You do CPR. You get a defibrillator.”
Watch previous coverage: Community honors Menchville sophomore who died after passing out in school
News 3 reached out to Newport News school officials for comment Thursday. We received the following response:
"Good afternoon. We have only been advised that we will be involved in defending the suit. As of this time we have not seen a copy of the pleadings, our clients have not yet been served, and the pleadings are not yet accessible on line for us to review. Accordingly, we are not in a position to comment at this time."
-Rick Matthews, Pender and Coward
Both Newport News School board and Newport News Public Schools reached out to News 3 to provide a statement:
The Newport News School Board and the Newport News Public Schools leadership team have kept Kaleiah Jones’ family and friends in our thoughts.
We cannot comment on the family’s pending lawsuit at this time. We know that their grief, pain and sadness are constant, and we continue to extend our deepest condolences to them.
