How many tragedies does it take for a school district to prioritize the lives of our children over protecting its own image?

When 14-year-old Daniel Padilla Jr. collapsed and died during a physical education class at Fresno High School this past March, our community wept. Daniel’s mother had a healthy boy one day, and the next, he was gone. Any parent can tell you that the only thing worse than an unimaginable loss is being left in the dark about how it happened.

Yet, four months later, Daniel’s family is still forced to fight through high-priced lawyers just to get basic answers. This week, a judge had to set an Aug. 5 hearing just to compel Fresno Unified School District to produce records about the emergency response, medical training, and whether a defibrillator was even used.

This Is a Pattern, not a New Problem

This is not an isolated delay. This is a terrifying historical pattern of administrative self-preservation. Individual families and parents have identified and spoken about this pattern to no avail and now we must stand together collectively to demand a culture shift within the public education system.

The entities that have been erected to take our complaints, such as the Fresno County Grand Jury and the Public Integrity Unit, are not going to come to our rescue to hold these elected and appointed politicians within the education system accountable.

For years, Fresno parents have rung these alarms individually. We have sat at kitchen tables, talked with friends, neighbors and family members sick with worry. We have complained to teachers, we have complained to principals, we have gone to the school districts and their School Boards with these same complaints. Caregivers and concerned community members have left thousands of angry comments on Facebook, Instagram, and beneath local news articles.

But individual complaints and digital venting are insufficient. Our complacency, and our reliance on fragmented, isolated voices, have allowed a culture of administrative deflection to thrive —all the while leaving our children at risk of not just harm but death.

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State Accuses FUSD Nurses of ‘Incompetence’ After Student Death

If you think the stonewalling of the Padilla family is shocking, look at the devastating details just released by the California Board of Registered Nursing regarding a 2022 tragedy. An 11-year-old student at Homan Elementary suffered a severe asthma attack. Instead of calling an ambulance, which is standard procedure, the school nurse simply called the family. The student, who needed a wheelchair just to move, was picked up by a grandparent, went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital, and died of an anoxic brain injury.

The State Board of Registered Nursing found “incompetence” and “unprofessional conduct” by district employees regarding that tragedy. FUSD’s internal investigation resulted in no record of discipline or training. To make matters worse, at the time of that child’s death, the overseer of FUSD’s health department was an administrator with absolutely zero medical background who happens to be married to the district’s Director of Operational Services.

Our children are not safe. Community becoming village is first acknowledging that this is a hard reality for parents and the community to swallow but the facts do not lie: Our Children Are Not Safe. The concern is no longer just emotional harm but tangible death.

Community Action Event Set for July 15

The Fresno Community Parent Coalition was founded because we refuse to let another family stand alone, whether it be in advocacy for their own child or in grief.

Our village will not allow families to be isolated while a multi-billion-dollar school district like Fresno Unified stonewalls to avoid accountability and mitigate liability through the administrative complaint and investigation process. Trust me, social media comments do not change district policies.

It is time to channel our collective parent voice into organized, unyielding action. No more thoughts and prayers for our neighbors. No more behind closed door support and advice. No more refusing to take on the burden of our neighbors as our own. No more letting the district investigate itself or pay off third party investigators to work in there. We need community oversight and accountability. We need a community willing to become a village around the protection of our children.

Join us on Wednesday, July 15, at 6:30 p.m. in front of Fresno Unified School District headquarters, 2309 Tulare St., for a Community Becoming Village public safety announcement.

Our children are not safe if the institutions built to protect them are more focused on liability than life.

To the parents of Fresno: we cannot afford to look away anymore. We cannot wait for the next headline, the next hearing, or the next tragedy to decide that we’ve had enough. Daniel Padilla Jr. should be getting ready for his sophomore year.

We must trade in our online complaints for collective power because Fresno Unified and every other district operating in Fresno County must know and understand that our children’s lives are entirely non-negotiable.

About the Author 

Kristina Holmes-McIntyre is co-founder of the Fresno Community Parent Coalition, a grassroots organization dedicated to unifying the voices of local parents, caregivers, and neighbors to demand safety, transparency, quality and equity in our schools.