Twelve-year-old Yahshua Robinson was made to run in sweltering heat on August 29 for dressing inappropriately for a P.E. class. He ended up dying after suffering a medical emergency despite his pleas for help, his family told NBC4.
The incident happened at the Canyon Lake Middle School in Lake Elsinore, California. The temperature was in the low- to mid-90 degrees at the time Yahshua suffered the medical emergency. Students who witnessed the incident also said the 12-year-old started feeling unwell after he was made to run.
“He was reaching out to the teacher, saying he needed some water. He said he couldn’t breathe. He was telling the kids this,” Yahshua’s aunt, Amarna Plummer, said, adding that her nephew collapsed on the field after his condition aggravated.
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Yahshua was later pronounced dead after he was transported to a hospital. The circumstances surrounding his death have since left his family angry. “Why would you have a child in his clothes – he didn’t dress out – running a field?” Plummer questioned.
Plummer also said Yahshua’s mother works as a P.E. instructor at another school in the same district. Plummer also claimed the 12-year-old’s mother cautioned school officials about the sweltering heat.
“She informs the administration, ‘Do not let any children go out today for P.E.’ And what happened? She gets a call he passed out on the field,” said Plummer.
A spokesperson for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, however, told NBC4 that they could not provide specific information with regard to Yahshua’s death. The district in a statement also said it was “saddened” to confirm the 12-year-old’s death, adding that it happened as a result of a “medical emergency at one of our LEUSD campuses.”
Plummer, however, called for accountability in connection with her nephew’s death. “This is terrible. It happened on somebody else’s watch,” said Plummer.
