Family of girl crushed by school gate files suit against Flowing Wells district

The family of a 9-year-old girl killed when she was crushed by a school gate in November has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Flowing Wells Unified School District.

Arlette Chavira died because of “the negligence and carelessness” of the district, says the lawsuit filed Monday in Pima County Superior Court by her parents, Sergio Chavira and Luz Encinas.

Chavira’s parents previously filed a $15 million wrongful death claim on April 23, which is the precursor to filing a lawsuit. They are represented by attorneys John A. Musacchio and William C. Bacon of Goldberg & Osborne LLP.

The parents say the school district should be held completely and directly responsible for the death of their daughter.

On Nov. 8, 2023, Centennial Elementary School’s maintenance supervisor, Ramon Gonzalez, had “submitted a maintenance request to repair a large metal gate ... because its ‘stop bar’ was in disrepair,” the lawsuit notes. This was 9 days before the gate fell and crushed the student.

At about 2:20 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2023, Arlette and her sister, referred to as “Jane Doe Chavira” in the initial wrongful death claim, were heading from Centennial Elementary School to a nearby junior high where their mother worked.

The children stopped to help Gonzalez close the gate.

“As Arlette Chavira and her sister were pulling on the gate to close it, the gate rolled past the defective, unrepaired ‘stop bar,’ came off its tracks, and violently fell on Arlette Chavira, striking her face and head, crushing her skull, and causing her catastrophic injures that resulted in her death,” the lawsuit says.

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Arlette’s sister was able to jump out of the way before the gate hit her but had to watch her sister be crushed by it, the document says.

Pima County sheriff’s deputies arrived to the scene to find that Gonzalez had been unable to lift the gate. Arlette was taken to a hospital where she died.

Gonzalez “carelessly” allowed the two sisters to pull on the gate despite knowing of its state of disrepair, the lawsuit says, and adds that the district should have predicted this dangerous outcome since a maintenance request had been filed.

The lawsuit says Flowing Wells dropped the ball in maintaining and repairing “dangerous, defective and hazardous” conditions of the gate. The district also should have ordered students to not go near the gate and should have taken steps to protect and keep them safe, the document says. The district is “liable and legally responsible for the actions and inactions of its employees,” it says.

The damages count seeks compensation for “the pain, grief, sorrow, anguish, stress, shock and mental suffering already experienced and to be experienced in the future” due to Arlette’s death and “the loss of (her) love, affection, companionship, care, protection and guidance.”

The lawsuit also asks for the district to compensate the family for the costs of the medical, funeral and burial expenses as well as the plaintiffs’ costs and expenses in suing. It does not cite a dollar figure.

Flowing Wells officials could not immediately be reached for comment.