Long Beach Girl Dies Hours After Fight With Classmate

LONG BEACH, Calif. — After getting her nose bloodied in a fight with another girl near their Southern California elementary school, 11-year-old Joanna Ramos told her mother on the way home she felt sick. Hours later, she was dead.

"My daughter started complaining, saying she doesn't feel good, let's go home, so we went to home and I changed her clothes, and she go to sleep, that's the only thing that I know," Joanna's mother, Cecilia Villanueva told KNBC-TV. "We took her to the hospital but it was too late. She was in a coma."

Ramos died at a Long Beach hospital at 9 p.m. Friday, about six hours after the fight in an alley, police said Saturday. Authorities have not released the girl's name but Villanueva told KNBC the girl who died was her daughter, Joanna.

"I want to know what happened," she said through tears.

Police spokeswoman Nancy Pratt stressed the unusual nature of the tragedy, urging caution about linking the fight to the girl's death until a coroner's report is released. Police, who have interviewed the other girl involved in the fight, were investigating and said that no arrests are immediately planned.

"I think it's safe to say this is definitely an isolated incident," Pratt said. "I personally don't hear of 11-year-old fights like this especially girls. I can't say they never happen but I think everyone was completely caught off-guard by this event."

The after school fight near Willard Elementary didn't appear to be especially serious or violent, no weapons were used and neither girl was knocked to the ground, police said. Police could not say what prompted the fight but friends had their suspicions.

"They were fighting over a boy," said Stephanie Guadalupe, a friend of Joanna. "I told the teacher and she said she would talk to all the girls on Monday."

The Long Beach Press Telegram reported the fight was pre-planned. Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Chris Steinhauser told the newspaper there was no indication that adults at the school, attended by about 800 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, were aware of the fight or notified about beforehand.

The students involved in the altercation left an after-school program and went to an alley near the school to fight. Some students said bullying had been a problem at the school but Deputy Chief Robert Luna could not confirm if this was an issue in this incident.

"They took off their backpacks, and they put their hair in a bun, and then that's when they said `go' and that's when they started hitting each other," Joanna's friend and classmate Maggie Martinez, who watched the fight, told KNBC.

Martinez and other witnesses said Joanna's nose was bleeding after the fight. Joanna's mother told the station she picked up Joanna after the school called her.

The girl was hospitalized and had emergency surgery but died about six hours after.

"There are times when words do not convey the sense of sadness we feel," Mayor Bob Foster said at a press conference. "This is one of those times."

Comments

[jj8005]

02:50 PM on 02/28/2012

Usually with a mystery death like this on such a young child, they would perform an autopsy.
Article says they're waiting for the coroner's report. Nothing mentioned about an autopsy. Maybe it's the same but they're not calling it an autopsy.
I would demand one.

[Alexandra Lawson]

02:27 PM on 02/28/2012

It seems that kids are trapped in a loop of helplessness. They are told, "Go tell a teacher or someone you trust" when they hear about bullying or fighting. The teacher should have gone to the administration right away, had the parents of both girls called into the school for a meeting with their children, and perhaps this senseless tragedy could have been avoided. Kids are dumb. They need guidance. "I'll talk to them on Monday," is not an acceptable response from a responsible adult in a position of power to a threat of violence between two students.

[Hopefully Yours]

11:51 AM on 02/28/2012

This fighting to solve problems is a no win situation. She could have been punched, fallen & hit her head. Anything can happen when here's a fight. I'm sure no one intended to kill the other. But again anything can happen, and you can't take it back or change it. Not to get all phliosophical or anything,
but we will all, at one time or another, find ourselves at an place where we shouldn't be. What is it that gives some of us the restraint, & what is it that makes someone throw caution to the wind?
I can only say that restraint seems to be a forgotten art. If we could see beyond the moment... whatever that moment holds, there are answers, with the time to think them through.
These are difficult times we are living in.There are things going on that most of us can't fathom. Where do these young people get our structure from?

[orthobobsuruncle]

05:52 AM on 02/28/2012

Sometimes things just happen. Look at Natasha Richardson. Poor parents, poor everybody.

[smlyttle]

05:27 AM on 02/28/2012

Very tragic, but sounds just like a pure accident and or a domino effect of things, like she got hit just right on the head to cause an aneurism or something maybe? My prayers with the family.

[Fuddgate]

04:21 AM on 02/28/2012

Girls getting into fistfights? Never happened to my knowledge at my school. (A public school with a graduating class of 1000. Of course I may have been a sheltered child.

[jmoser1973]

06:58 AM on 02/28/2012

We had a few at my school 20 years ago.

[tamthebrat1978]

07:48 PM on 03/07/2012

Yeah we had a few in junior high, none in elementary or in high school, and no one was killed because teachers or staff used physical contact to break a fight up.

[thehappymos]

09:57 PM on 02/27/2012

I live in Long Beach, our kids go to school in Long Beach. The whole district takes bullying and fighting extremely seriously. All schools have some form of zero-tolerance policy. That being said, this was an after-school fight. It lasted approximately one minute. It's the kind of tussle I remember seeing here and there when I went to school (also in Long Beach). BOTH girls were fighting. Now, one is dead and one has to live with this horrible thing that she thought was just a dust-up over a boy. This was a sad, inexplicable freak accident. It was the kind of accident that could happen if the head trauma was caused by a fall or a sports injury. Filing any kind of charges would be ruining two families' lives instead of one.

[tamthebrat1978]

07:51 PM on 03/07/2012

So if you fall victim of a crime you will not file charges because you will ruin another family's life too. Just so you know you could be killed in a second or less with the intention to harm you, it is called pullng a gun trigger.

[jgfsmf]

06:15 PM on 02/27/2012

If she died six hours after surgery, then the must know how she died or at least what was wrong with her.

[jmoser1973]

06:59 AM on 02/28/2012

she died 6 hours after the fight in the alley. she didn't have surgery.

[lilmsctfsh]

09:40 AM on 02/28/2012

"The girl was hospitalized and had emergency surgery but died about six hours after."

[TurnToTheLeft]

01:47 PM on 02/27/2012

Joanna Ramos died. This immediately takes it out of the range of an after-school fight over a boy. The girl who beat her should be immediately taken away from her parents and locked up under the Juvenile Court until the trial. A girl is dead. No matter how "good" the other girl may be is irrelevant. A crime has been committed. The boys who held back the girls (who wanted to break up the fight and possibly save Joanna Ramos's life) should be immediately suspended until their is a trial. They must learn from this experience and serve as a lesson.

[jmoser1973]

07:03 AM on 02/28/2012

It was a regular fight that lasted a few minutes. She does not need to be taken from her parents. We seen many fights in our days in school. Witnesses say this wasn't even very violent. She could have had a condition that was triggered by this. You are jumping to conclusions way too fast. It isn't like the girl dealt a blow and she collapsed and died.
If you take that stance then every child who ever gets in a fight again should be taken from their parents and be given the same punishment you are suggesting. Believe it or not, sometimes things just happen and no one in particular is to blame.

[lilmsctfsh]

09:43 AM on 02/28/2012

Your post is the single most ridiculous post ive EVER read. These children are 11 years old. There were no weapons...no malicious intent to kill. They're just kids hashing it out like kids do. What if they were 5 and fighting over a toy and one died? Get real!

[yesythegreat]

11:51 AM on 02/27/2012

The situation is very sad was obviously unforeseeable. With that being sad parents need to stress to their kids that it is never smart or ideal to fight over a boy or a girl. So many kids got into fights in my school for a boy/girl. From the start my dad would always stress that it was such a dumb thing to do and I always carried that with me. I mean does the boy you are fighting for choose the winner of the fight as his girlfriend? Yes I know kids make dumb choices sometimes but we've all been there and we can all use our experiences to teach our children.

[TurnToTheLeft]

01:49 PM on 02/27/2012

Dumb or not - Joanna Ramos is dead. Their must be consequences.

[RecycleMe247]

10:59 AM on 02/29/2012

Two wrongs don't make a wright.......In this case! My heart goes out to everyone directly involved in this sad story.

[Nieschk]

10:27 AM on 02/27/2012

A very sad event for both families. I do hope they are able to determine the cause of death. My prayers go out to the families of both girls.

[Fenrir Lokison]

10:23 AM on 02/27/2012

Sounds like this girl had an unseen condition.

When I was in bootcamp, I heard about a recruit who died from a hit during our combat training. We were wearing headgear and everything.

Sometimes these things happen.

I feel for her family and those at her school. Particularly the little girl she had the fight with...I can't imagine what she is feeling.

[Lily P]

10:22 AM on 02/27/2012

Why is it OK for kids to fight and bully each other, yet NOT ok for adults? WTH!

[TurnToTheLeft]

01:50 PM on 02/27/2012

NOT OKAY! Their should be stiff consequences for the killer and the enablers.

[LLovejoy]

03:50 PM on 02/27/2012

I think it's a bit premature to be calling the girl a killer. "Police spokeswoman Nancy Pratt stressed the unusual nature of the tragedy, urging caution about linking the fight to the girl's death until a coroner's report is released."

[RecycleMe247]

11:18 AM on 02/29/2012

FOR THE KILLER!!! biigg WTF! ARE YOU FOR REAL????? Imagine being the other girl and having to live the rest of her LIFE knowing she played a SMALL part in someones death. It's not like she intended for the poor girl to die. Remember, the story isn't over yet. The girl COULD of had some pre-existing problem. Reading your other comments, I dare say, you are an enabler of dumbassery!

[Broadwayactor09]

08:06 AM on 02/27/2012

As much as I feel bad for this tragic incident to Joanna, the other girl is going to suffer a lot of emotional distress thinking that she killed the girl or something. I can only wish the best for her, in addition to sending prayers for Joanna's family.

[fran glass]

09:35 AM on 02/27/2012

I was thinking that i also felt bad for the other girl. They shouldn't have been fighting, but i am sure she didn't intend to kill the other girl and now she has to live with it... very sad.

[kathy smelser]

08:39 AM on 02/29/2012

i hope that the other girl who caused the death thinks about this every day for the rest of her life

[Broadwayactor09]

09:13 AM on 02/29/2012

I hope she actually learns to move on past it, like I said, yea it's tragic but they are both young! Everyone got into a little scuttle when they were young, how would you feel if you just hit someone hard in the stomach at one point in your life, accidently ruptured their spleen and killed them and you had to think about it for your entire life? I'd be devastated.

[Stephen Thorpe]

08:05 AM on 02/27/2012

Life is fragile and can be over very easily.

A local boy on a baseball team takes a ball in the chest off a line-drive hit, they're 9 year olds. Dies.

So 11 year olds fight, a punch in the nose is a killer shot. How? There must have been a rupture of a blood vessel in the area behind the sinus's in the brain. Here again the danger of head injuries.

I'm sure the other girl DIDN'T mean to cause a fatality. However that's what it is. A grave thing to be faced with at 11.

I don't know what the statistics are, but it just seems like kids being killed by other kids is WAY up.
In our city it's like a war zone.