Los Angeles area high school student dies after injury at football game

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles-area high school student who was recently injured during a football game has died, the high school’s principal said in a letter to the community last week.

The student at South East High School was injured in a junior varsity game against Maywood Center for Enriched Studies on Aug. 23.

South East High School Principal Eric Jaimes said in a message to the school community Wednesday, “I am saddened to report the recent death of one of our students.”

“On behalf of our entire school community, I want to offer my deepest condolences. At this time, we request that the privacy of those who have been impacted be respected during this difficult time. Please know that our entire school community offers our support,” Jaimes wrote in the message, provided by a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Los Angeles Times reported the student needed medical assistance after he tackled another player on the sidelines of the Aug. 23 game.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has not released the student’s name and the student was not identified in Jaimes’ message to the school community.

The message and the district did not specify a cause of death, or say whether the death was football-related.

Jaimes said in the message that the school has crisis counselors available for students who need additional support.

“Every member of the South East High School community matters and this loss impacts us all,” he wrote.

The spokesperson for the school district said that it is district policy that all football games have at least one medical personnel present.

There were two medical staff at the game where the student was injured, and both attended to the student after the incident, the spokesperson said.

The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury said that last year there were 16 fatalities total among youth league, middle school, high school and collegiate football players.

Of those, 13 were directly or indirectly related to football, it said in an annual report.

Three were directly related to football participation with traumatic brain injury and 10 were indirectly related, which includes things like exertion and medical issues like heatstroke and sudden cardiac arrest, the center said in the report.

Two were not related, and in one death the cause was unknown at the time of the report, it said.