Update on Helen Bernstein High School Incident (09-14-22)

CONTACT: Shannon Haber
communications@lausd.net  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2022

Update on Helen Bernstein High School Incident

Los Angeles, CA (September 14, 2022) – Los Angeles Unified continues to mourn the death of a 15-year-old student from Helen Bernstein High School. Our thoughts are with the family as they grapple with this loss and begin the long road of grief and sorrow. We cannot begin to articulate the anguish and heartache of losing a child, a friend, a family member and a loved one so young, but Los Angeles Unified is offering grief counseling and on-site resources to the Bernstein community amidst this tragedy.
 
Our schools remain the safest places for our students. However, we must be vigilant and deliberate to ensure the spaces our students occupy outside of school are equally as safe. The hardships and pain experienced outside of our campuses are not cordoned off from our communities but are inherently brought to the doorsteps of our schools and felt by all in our District family.
 
We are grateful for the swift cooperation with the Los Angeles School Police and the Los Angeles Police Department in response to this incident, as well as the actions taken by Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell who temporarily closed Lexington Park—a known location for drug distribution.
 
We will soon be announcing additional directives and steps to address the epidemic of drug related distress occurring in our schools. Efforts will be coordinated in partnership with the City of Los Angeles, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies. These are preventable tragedies, and we must work diligently to quell their impact on our families. Our students deserve better.
 
The LAPD remains the lead agency on this investigation. Los Angeles Unified and LAPD are aggressively seeking information related to the individual who distributed the narcotics to our students, and we will deploy every resource available to bring them to justice. If you have any information that may lead to their apprehension, please contact the anonymous tip line at (800) 222-TIPS.
 

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