Student dies after being found unresponsive on school bus

HOLLYWOOD – A Hollywood high school student was pronounced dead at a hospital after being found in an unresponsive state on a school bus, police said Wednesday.

“At this time there is no indication a crime has occurred,” said Officer Christian Lata, a spokesman for the Hollywood Police Department.

It was 7:30 a.m. when police and paramedics were called to McArthur High School, on Hollywood Boulevard, immediately west of Florida’s

Turnpike, police said.

The school’s resource officer and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive the student with CPR before transporting him to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, police said.

“Unfortunately, the student was later pronounced deceased by hospital staff,” Lata said.

Police did not respond to requests for the student’s age, gender and grade.

A Broward County high school science teacher, in a Facebook post, identified the student as a 14-year-old, ninth-grade boy who lived in Pembroke

Pines.

“Let us seriously pray for the parents who suddenly just lost their ONLY child. This is unreal !!!!!!!! ” Ted Victor, of Pembroke Pines, posted on the Facebook page for the Broward Social Network.

Other students on the school bus thought the student, a quiet boy who usually kept to himself, was asleep, Victor’s post said.

“He was the last one on the bus, motionless, unresponsive,” Victor wrote. “The bus driver tried to wake him, and then immediately realized something was very wrong.”

The death remains under investigation. Detectives are awaiting autopsy results from the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office.

Investigators urge anyone with information about the student’s death to contact Hollywood police at 954-764-4357 or 954-967-4411. Tipsters also can email or text hollywoodpdtips@hollywoodfl.org.

Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at www.browardcrimestoppers.org.