Investigation into Pierce County 11-year-old’s death leads away from school fight
An 11-year-old girl who died last week following an altercation at her middle school showed no signs of injury, according to a statement from the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office read Tuesday night at a meeting called to address school safety in the Franklin Pierce School District.
Lenyia Swansey Faafiti, a sixth grader at Ford Middle School, died Friday after becoming unresponsive Thursday morning. Lenyia was involved in a fight with another 11-year-old girl on May 16, four days before she died in a hospital.
Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Darren Moss led off the meeting with an attempt to shed light on the circumstances of Lenyia’s death.
“I want to quash any rumors about what might have happened or what you think might have happened,” Moss said.
Some parents voiced displeasure that Moss began the meeting with an update into Lenyia’s death.
“We’re here to talk to you, not him,” one parent said to Franklin Pierce superintendent Lance Goodpaster.
“I didn’t intend to offend anyone by having him go first,” Goodpaster said in the auditorium of the Central Avenue Elementary in Tacoma.
Moss noted the unusual nature of the meeting. Information on death investigations is not usually made public early into death investigations. But the situation was urgent, he said. Three of the girls involved in the fight are now receiving death threats on social media.
Investigation
“This is a death investigation,” Moss said. “It’s not a homicide.”
Neither the Sheriff’s Department nor the school district knew there had been a fight until Thursday, Moss said. Later, a video of the incident was shared with the Sheriff’s Department and school district.
The cause and manner of Lenyia’s death still has yet to be determined, Moss said. He then read a statement provided by the medical examiner.
“No evidence of significant physical injury was found during examination of the decedent,” Moss read. “There is also no indication from the investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death to indicate that the decedent died from injuries sustained in an altercation or assault.”
Parental concerns
While acknowledging the tragedy of Lenyia’s death, parents pushed back at Moss and Goodpaster.
“We have our own legitimate grievances that are unrelated to what happened,” one parent said.
“At what point do we stop allowing the bullying to continue without repercussions?” another parent asked.
Some parents remained unconvinced by the new information into Lenyia’s death and wanted to hear final results from the investigation.
“My daughters have been attacked multiple times,” a parent said. “And yes, I’m fired up about that. But, yes, it took a little girl passing for us to bring it forward and have maybe some action.”
District response
Goodpaster acknowledged that the meeting was intended to address ongoing and systemic issues.
“If we can collectively flip that switch so that we’re addressing the concerns around student safety and bullying and the way that we respond to student behavior,” he urged. “That’s what we’re here for tonight.”
The meeting was broken into small groups, each facilitated by a school district employee.
Concerns from those groups will be put into a document that will be publicly available, he said.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
