A disabled student wandered off from his California school. Days later, he was dead

Kevon DeLeon wandered off from school on Sept. 22, 2021; three days later, the 17-year-old boy was dead after having multiple seizures and going into cardiac arrest.

This week, his family filed a lawsuit against the Vallejo City Unified School District alleging its negligence led to the disabled teen’s death.

DeLeon’s father, Alexander DeLeon, and his grandmother and legal guardian, Reauchean DeLeon Watson, said the school did not adhere to his educational plan, failed to have qualified staff looking after DeLeon and failed to properly supervise the vulnerable student.

DeLeon was “a happy-go-lucky kid” who loved school and was excited to graduate early from Everest Academy in Vallejo that December, Watson said.

He was still deciding what to do with his life after graduation. At the public school he attended, faculty and staff were supposed to follow his Individualized Education Program as required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. DeLeon had epilepsy as well as executive functioning and emotional issues that meant he needed more supervision than a typical 17-year-old student: For one thing, the school bus picked him up directly from his home and let him out directly in front of the school, the lawsuit said.

Vallejo City Unified School District Communications Director Celina Baguiao declined to comment on the lawsuit.

According to the complaint filed against the district Oct. 6 in Solano County Superior Court, DeLeon took the bus to school one last time and, at some point during the school day, walked off campus.

“Kevon never went nowhere by himself, so he really didn’t have no sense of direction,” said his aunt, Ebonye DeLeon, who was also raising him with her mother and brother.

Watson said that after her grandson left the school, the teen called his father from Benicia Road around noon asking for help: “He was trying to tell his father where he was. I think he was probably on the onset of having a seizure then, because he didn’t recognize where he was.”

California teen found after suffering seizures

Watson’s grandson was found unresponsive later that day — the complaint said he’d already had multiple seizures, all alone — and an ambulance transported him to Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center.

At the hospital, DeLeon had more seizures. He was intubated. He went into cardiac arrest and underwent 19 minutes of CPR, the lawsuit said.

Eventually, his organs began failing, and on Sept. 24, an MRI showed that he had sustained severe brain damage from oxygen deprivation. On the afternoon of Sept. 25, he died.

According to his Individualized Education Program, “He was not supposed to leave that school walking anyplace if I didn’t go get him or his father didn’t go get him,” Watson said. “Had he stayed there and had the seizure at school, they know the procedure: He’s taken to Kaiser emergency room. He’s treated. Then they call me or his father.” Instead, he walked off, and “nobody stopped him.”

She believes that if someone had prevented him from leaving campus that day, he would still be belting Michael Jackson songs at home.

DeLeon’s dreams

DeLeon led an active life. On Saturdays, he did gymnastics; at home, he liked to sing and dance and, to his family’s amusement and annoyance, lock himself in their bathroom to make TikToks. He befriended a deaf classmate, who was teaching him to sign. At 17, he was thinking about going to college and maybe becoming some kind of performer. Watson and her grandson would have little arguments about his big dreams.

“The opportunities could have been endless for him,” she said. “I don’t know what Kevon could have done. He could have done anything.” She thought maybe she’d see him get married, or go to college.

Instead, the family celebrated his 18th birthday without him, with balloons and a blue and green frosted cake. Watson has tried to get DeLeon’s high school diploma from the school. “He earned that diploma, he worked hard for that diploma” — but she said she’s been met with silence.

She said she and her son are now suing over DeLeon’s death because they’re hoping to effect change in Vallejo City Unified School District and in schools across California.

“Nobody should have to go through this,” she said. “And I want somebody to be held accountable and responsible.”