Murrieta district pays $11M over boy’s school pool death

MURRIETA, Calif. – A Southern California school district will pay $11 million to the parents of a 13-year-old boy who died after being pulled unresponsive from a high school pool.

A lawsuit settlement between the family of Alex Pierce and the Murrieta Valley Unified High School District was announced Tuesday.

Pierce was at a 2016 pool party at Vista Murrieta High School when he was underwater for several minutes.

Classmates pulled him out but the student lifeguards didn’t perform CPR. The comatose teen was removed from life support a month later.

The lawsuit said the school district lacked proper safety policies.

The district didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing but agreed to change its safety plan and train all faculty in CPR. The school superintendent also issued a letter of apology to his parents.