Prosecutor: S.C. Student May Have Died from Natural Causes, Not a Fight
Officials initially believed 10-year-old Raniya Wright died from injuries sustained in a fight, but now a prosecutor says it was a personal medical issue.
Raniya's mother still believes her daughter was being bullied at school and was unprotected.
After further investigation into the death of 10-year-old Raniya Wright, a prosecutor says she died from natural causes and not from the fight she was in with another student two days prior.
Duffie Stone, a South Carolina prosecutor, said in a press conference on Friday that Wright died of a congenital condition called arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of abnormal blood vessels in the brain, reports CBS News.
Stone said that scientific reports show no evidence that Wright died of trauma to the body from the March 25 incident, when she and another fifth grader got into a fight in their classroom. At the time, the other student involved was suspended from school but not charged.
Now, it is official that no criminal charges will be filed in the case, according to Stone.
“In this case, the science is clear,” he said.
Ashley Wright, Raniya’s mother, has been adamant that her daughter was being regularly bullied at school and felt the school failed to protect her daughter from the bully.
“I’m very upset with the school system, starting out, only because of the fact that I’ve been complaining about the person that she fought numerous times to them,” Wright said.
Forest Hill Elementary School officials described the altercation between the two fifth-graders as a brief “slap fight,” and said the girls were immediately separated. They do not believe there was any evidence of bullying or any previous altercations between the girls.
Margie Pizarro, an attorney for the Wright family, however, said other students in Raniya’s class confirmed the girl had been bothering Raniya all day.
According to Pizarro, the other student put Raniya in a headlock, punched her in the head repeatedly and pushed her into a shelf, where she then fell on her head.
Pizarro also said Wright had no knowledge that her daughter suffered from a medical condition and the family will be consulting with medical professionals about their findings.
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About the Author
Katie Malafronte, Web Editor
Katie Malafronte is Campus Safety's Web Editor. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2017 with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication Studies and a minor in Writing & Rhetoric. Katie has been CS's Web Editor since 2018.
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