A grief-stricken father is demanding answers and accountability from a Texas school system after his 14-year-old son suddenly died after suffering multiple seizures at once at his middle school.
The Houston Independent School District confirmed late last week that 14-year-old Landon Payton suffered a “medical emergency” at Marshall Middle School on Aug. 14.
District officials said Payton was assisted by school staff and personnel after he collapsed on the gym floor. Then, he was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Landon’s father, Alexis Payton, says that the district has told him very little about what happened before his son collapsed.
“I’m angry as hell,” Payton told local news outlets. “That was my baby. … I’m not going to make this easy on them or me. We’re going to get (answers) one way or another.”
Payton said the district showed him police body camera footage of the moments after his son’s seizures when first responders arrived, but not the moments before.
He stated that the school nurse could be heard saying that she did not know how to perform CPR or use an automated external defibrillator (AED). An AED is a device that assesses a person’s heart rhythm and emits an electric shock to help restore a normal rhythm when someone is suffering sudden cardiac arrest.
“It’s a nurse you have at the school who didn’t know how to do CPR, did not know how to use the defibrillator,” Payton said.
Two teacher’s unions revealed that Marshall Middle School staff members told them the AED was broken or expired. Now, union leaders are calling for HISD Superintendent Mike Miles and several district board members to step down, citing that the faulty equipment led to the insufficient medical response.
“This oversight is entirely unacceptable and highlights a significant lapse in safety protocols,” the Houston Education Association said in the letter, according to the Houston Chronicle.
In the days since Landon’s death, Payton said he’s still having to fight for answers from the district. He said he was called to the school when his son collapsed and recalled the moments when he walked into the gym where he said the air conditioning wasn’t working very well.
“I was there at the end, I saw my son die,” Alexis told us. “All I want is closure. They don’t even wanna give me closure. We gotta go through the courts.”
Payton stated that his son had a clean bill of health, with no history of heart-related conditions or seizures. Landon took a physical exam a few months ago right before he tried out for the football team that revealed his condition was perfectly healthy.
Payton said his Landon had just transferred to Marshall Middle School and died just two days after school started.
“I’ve been tore up so much, not sleeping, not eating,” Payton said. “Never ends. It just hurts. It hurts and hurts. Crying and crying.”
In the latest statement on Landon’s death, Superintendent Miles stated that the district’s priority has been “focused on gathering information for the family.”
“As a father myself, my heart is broken for Landon’s family,” Miles wrote in the statement. “The district administration and the Marshall Middle School team is committed to the family and will do everything we can to support them during this time of crisis. The health and safety of our precious students is my top priority and the top priority of HISD educators and staff.”
Payton is still awaiting the results of an autopsy report with a cause of death from Harris County medical examiner.
