In 2022, a Fresno Unified elementary student died after having an asthma attack at school.

Following the asthma attack, a staff member took the student to the school nurse after the girl used her inhaler six times to little effect, alleges a lawsuit filed against the district Tuesday.

Very quickly, the student lost the ability to walk.

But instead of calling an ambulance — as the district’s asthma policy instructs — that nurse called to have the child’s grandmother pick her up. The student’s breathing problems were so severe that she required a wheelchair to reach the car.  Staff also needed an interpreter to communicate with the grandmother.

Within an hour of being released from the school, she lost consciousness and never awoke until she died several days later.

However, the district’s response to the child’s death wasn’t directed against the nurse who should have called for an ambulance to stabilize the student.

In fact, the only known investigation by the district into the death was by the nurse’s friend and immediate supervisor, who is a relative of interim superintendent Misty Her, according to attorney Howard Sagaser, who represents the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Lawrence White-Zarate.

The investigation took only hours, according to the lawsuit, and Sagaser says, “We believe the investigation was inadequate and not intended to get to the truth.”

Instead, two years later, the district punished White-Zarate, a Fresno Unified nurse at the time, for looking into the girl’s district medical records when her brother needed counseling on coming to terms with her death.

When asked to comment for this story, a Fresno Unified spokesperson said the district does not comment on pending litigation. The mother of the student who died also didn’t comment to GV Wire.

Whistleblower Suspects Fresno Unified Cover-Up

White-Zarate said he had expected support from the district and the Fresno Teachers Association when he reported the incident. He also expressed concern that negligence contributed to the student’s death.

He thought, in the least, that the district would use the tragedy as a learning experience. Instead, the whistleblower received a letter of reprimand from Fresno Unified.

And while the investigation into the death took only hours, the investigation into White-Zarate lasted two months and involved multiple meetings, the lawsuit alleges.

Now, White-Zarate is suing the district, telling GV Wire he wants not only his name cleared but also to expose an apparent cover-up by the district.

The lawsuit comes as the district faces another lawsuit from nurses for age discrimination. Sagaser represents the plaintiffs in that action as well.

GV Wire has learned the state Board of Registered Nursing is investigating the student’s death.

For privacy purposes, GV Wire is not disclosing the name of the student who died nor the name of the nurse who didn’t call the ambulance. 

“The family — this needs to be addressed with them. I don’t even know to date that the parents know what truly transpired in that health office and how bad the student was,” White-Zarate told GV Wire.

“As far as I’m concerned, they could think this all happened in the car on the way home. I don’t know that they truly know the failure of Fresno Unified.”

District Policy: Call 9-1-1 If a Student Can’t Breathe

White-Zarate first learned about the death when the student’s brother came to him for help in 2024. Nurses at the district often act as a “listening board” for students, he said.

The boy’s school — different from the girl’s school — held a health meeting for him. As a school nurse, White-Zarate took part in that meeting.

There, the boy’s mother told staff his problems stemmed from the death of his sister, said White-Zarate, adding that he didn’t know about death until that moment.

Normally, he would have heard about a death like the one described to him, White-Zarate said. The report he read shocked him, he said.

The widely accepted Asthma Action Plan directs medical staff to call 9-1-1 if a student can’t talk or walk and symptoms aren’t relieved by an inhaler.

The next call goes to a parent, who can then decline medical transportation when they get to the school. However, the priority is to get immediate care for the student, White-Zarate said.

White-Zarate said he thinks that if the nurse had followed that plan, that student could still be alive. He told GV Wire he expected a district-wide review of its asthma response, considering how prevalent the disease is in the Central Valley.

“I was literally sick to my stomach because I knew 9-1-1 should have been called,” White-Zarate said. “It 99% probably would have saved the student’s life.”

Director of Human Resources Doesn’t Sign Reprimand Letter: Sagaser

In May 2024, the district sent White-Zarate its formal complaint, saying he exposed the district to potential liability.

“Regardless of your intent, your actions as described above were unprofessional, and disrespectful to the family of the student whose records you accessed,” the district’s letter stated. “Your actions constituted a violation of the family and student’s right to privacy and confidentiality.”

The letter stated White-Zarate had no “educational interest” in accessing the student’s record. But treating a student requires all the facts, White-Zarate said. He said he wanted to make sure no student died this way again.

“Unsure of how to address what may have been concealed misconduct, I considered the interests of my current students, my obligation to report a lapse in care, and the possibility that this may result in legal action against the district,” states White-Zarate’s legal claim for damages..

However, the reprimand letter from Chief Human Resources Officer David Chavez wasn’t signed. And, in a deposition for White-Zarate’s lawsuit, Chavez said he had not  seen the letter before it went out, Sagaser told GV Wire.

White-Zarate said he had an excellent work record and had never received a reprimand before. In addition, he was on a career track to leadership as the health services manager for winter and summer sessions.

The district eventually placed the nurse who tended to the asthmatic student and the nurse who led the investigation into the girl’s death on administrative leave in late 2024 and early 2025 — nearly three years after the student died. The district’s action came after Sagaser launched an investigation into the student’s death.

White-Zarate left the district to work at Clovis Unified shortly after his reprimand.

“They charged me with being unethical, unprofessional and what pissed me off the most was being disrespectful to the deceased student’s family,” White-Zarate said. “Here from day one, I’ve said I’m just trying to advocate for my student, his deceased sister and his family. And you’re going to accuse me of being disrespectful to them?”

FTA Protects Itself: White-Zarate

White-Zarate had a meeting with representatives from the Fresno Teachers Association for an unrelated matter the day he accessed the deceased student’s records.

He asked if the FTA rep knew about the student’s death as the union likely would have been told about the incident. He was advised to keep the matter quiet while the union looked into the matter, White-Zarate said. At a later meeting, a different FTA representative met with White-Zarate and told him what he did was wrong.

The representative did not admonish him for accessing the records, but rather for sharing a screenshot and details about the student’s death with two other nurses who are union representatives.

Sagaser believes the union failed to represent White-Zarate adequately.

At a later disciplinary meeting with White-Zarate, and district and FTA officials, the union gave him no support, he said.

“What’s the point of FTA at this point? They had totally burned me,” he said.

Calls made by GV Wire to Manuel Bonilla, president of FTA, and Louis Jamerson, executive director of FTA, were not returned.