Shock, sorrow after teen cheerleader's death in LA
LOS ANGELES (AP) - When students return for school Monday morning at Washington Prep, they'll be greeted by crisis counselors and missing one of their beloved classmates, a cheerleader who died after collapsing during a football game...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When students return for school Monday morning at Washington Prep, they’ll be greeted by crisis counselors and missing one of their beloved classmates, a cheerleader who died after collapsing during a football game.
Angela Gettis, a 16-year-old sophomore at the school, was rallying the crowd Friday night in the fourth quarter of a tie game at Fremont High School when she suffered an apparent cardiac arrest, Los Angeles Unified School District spokesman Tom Waldman said.
The game stopped as coaches and trainers ran to help. Bystanders performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. Gettis died about three hours later at a hospital, becoming the second teenage girl from Los Angeles district schools to die over the weekend after a dramatic campus incident.
WATCH NBC LOS ANGELES COVERAGE OF THE CHEERLEADER’S SUDDEN DEATH:
[NBCVIDEO source=”LA” video=”http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Community-Mourns-Cheerleaders-Death-130948698.html” w=”576″ h=”324″]
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School officials planned to discuss Gettis at a Monday morning news conference.
School district Superintendent John Deasy said the girl was “a wonderful young lady. It is a catastrophic loss for the school and for the community. My heart goes out to her family.”
Gettis was a good student, said officials at the inner-city school in a rough area of Los Angeles. She planned to attend college and wanted to major in forensic science, school principal Todd Ullah told KABC-TV.
At least two tribute pages memorializing the teen popped up on Facebook as news of her death spread.
Grief counselors and a makeshift memorial also await students at South East High School in South Gate, where a 17-year-old student was stabbed during a lunch break in front of many student witnesses.
The student, Cindi Santana, died at a hospital late Friday night, Deasy said.
Another student and an administrator who tried to help Santana had minor injuries.
Santana’s former boyfriend, 18-year-old Abraham Lopez, was being held on suspicion of murder, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Deputies reached by phone did not know whether he had retained an attorney.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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