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Left: Amanda Corbala and Cruzito Tank Ruiz pose for a picture (Lawsuit). Right: Cruzito choking on a piece of pineapple in surveillance footage (Lawsuit).
A mother in Nevada has taken legal action against her son’s school district, alleging negligence after a choking incident during lunch resulted in her child’s death.
The tragic event unfolded on February 25, 2025, when 8-year-old Cruzito Tank Ruiz encountered difficulty with a piece of pineapple that obstructed his airway, as detailed in a 26-page legal document. The boy reportedly approached a staff member, gesturing for assistance by bringing his hands to his mouth and showing clear signs of distress.
Another student informed the same staff member that Cruzito appeared unwell, as stated in the lawsuit. During this time, the document claims that Cruzito continued to suffer from choking on the fruit.
The lawsuit criticizes the delayed response in administering CPR.
Instead of providing immediate aid or seeking help from other adults, the staff member allegedly instructed Cruzito to leave the crowded cafeteria and go alone to the boys’ restroom. The filing further claims that the employee disregarded his plight by sending him away to the bathroom.
These choices “created and increased a mortal danger” to Cruzito and were inconsistent with “mandatory CPR” training, the lawsuit claims.
Cruzito followed the employee’s “directive and walked into the boys’ restroom alone,” according to the filing.
As the boy continued to choke, the employee “did not radio for help, call for the school nurse, alert any nearby adult staff, or contact emergency services before directing Cruzito out of sight; instead, she sent him alone into the boys’ restroom and did not initiate any emergency response,” the filing goes on.
The plaintiffs say the employee’s decisions “stripped Cruzito of access to the adults and medical resources present in the lunchroom.”
“The bathrooms in elementary school lunchrooms are designed for use by children, not adults,” the lawsuit reads. “Adult staff at Bass Elementary had dedicated bathrooms designed to be used by adults.”
Approximately five minutes later, the school employee directed other staff members to the boy’s bathroom, according to the lawsuit. By then, however, he had already “collapsed and turned blue” as he “suffered extreme conscious pain, terror, and air hunger while isolated in the restroom.”
“Ultimately, staff were notified by students of Cruzito’s condition,” the filing goes on. “Other staff called 911 and emergency responders came to the scene.”
By then, however, help was too late, the plaintiffs say.
The boy was transferred to the hospital, but on March 2, 2025, Cruzito died from an “anoxic brain injury secondary to cardiac arrest,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is being brought by Cruzito’s mother, Amanda Corbala, and by court-assigned representatives for the boy’s estate.
The plaintiffs allege the school district committed “an affirmative act” placing the boy in danger where injury was foreseeable. And then, after all that, “acted with deliberate indifference” to the danger.
The lawsuit repeatedly refers to surveillance footage from the school’s cafeteria, which purports to show the boy “choking at the table before, during and after interacting with” the school employee.
The employee in two separate written statements offered conflicting accounts of the incident, according to the lawsuit.
“I don’t remember releasing either boys for the bathroom but could have due to releasing many kids each day for the bathroom,” the first statement reads. “I remember talking with both boys and didn’t notice either in distress and neither mentioned any distress to me.”
In the second written statement, the school employee wrote that Cruzito was “not feeling well” and “had his cheeks puffed out a bit.” This observation, the employee wrote, prompted her to begin to tell him to go to the bathroom – but she claims she cut that directive short.
“I…stoped [sic] said go to the trash can not the bathroom and if needed someone will take you to Ms. Laura (Nurse’s office) while they went to trash can I went back to my class just 3-4 feet away,” the employee’s second statement reads.
That narrative does not align with other evidence, the plaintiffs say.
“Students reported that Cruzito was choking at the table,” the lawsuit goes on. “Students reported that Cruzito vomited at the table. [The employee] can be seen wiping up liquid and/or food from the area where Cruzito was sitting after she sent him to the bathroom. The direction [the employee] directed Cruzito was toward the bathroom.”
The lawsuit describes the employee’s actions as an affirmative order “to leave the cafeteria and go to the bathroom,” which “affirmatively separated him from adult supervision, [defibrillator] access, CPR, and trained staff during the critical window for intervention.”
The lawsuit states:
CRUZITO’s injury, asphyxiating to death because of airway obstruction, was foreseeable. It is a known and obvious consequence that isolating a child exhibiting signs of choking will prevent rescue and lead to hypoxia, cardiac arrest, and death.
A reasonable school employee with [the employee] required training would have known that directing a choking child out of sight hampers access to emergency treatment. Alternatively, it is common knowledge that a choking person needs help, not to be isolated. Even [the employee] thought CRUZITO might need medical attention from the nurse.
When other students arrived in the bathroom, they “observed him twitching and his lips turning blue or purple,” the lawsuit says.
While first responders attempted to use a defibrillator, he had flatlined without a pulse and was in a “non-shockable rhythm,” according to the complaint. As he was being wheeled out on a stretcher, medics performed CPR while his mother witnessed the scene and “began shrieking in terror.”
The seven-count lawsuit is premised on multiple theories of liability, including constitutional, statutory and common law claims.
The plaintiffs are seeking extensive damages.
“Cruzito died at just 8 years old because a Clark County School District employee ordered him to go to the bathroom alone while he was choking at school,” Corbala’s attorneys, Farhan R. Naqvi and Andre M. Lagomarsino, said in a statement provided to Law&Crime. “The family is heartbroken by the loss of their beloved Cruzito. His mother and family want to make sure it never happens again.”