Girl, 6, dies after being found unresponsive on campus

The death of a 6-year-old ExcellED Montessori School student initially found unresponsive at a campus beset by tragedy may have been caused by a medical episode, investigators said. 

The tragedy is the latest incident to plague the Boerne-area school at 27521 Interstate 10, which has seen its share of troubles during the past several months. 

In the Friday, June 6 episode, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said authorities received a call about 10 a.m. for a child found unresponsive in a restroom.  

“Employees called 911 and began administering life-saving measures to the little girl,” Salazar said in a press conference at the school “She was transported by EMS to University Hospital (in San Antonio) where unfortunately she was pronounced dead at 11:25 a.m.” 

Salazar said there are no indications of foul play or any wrongdoing, adding the remainder of the school’s students and staff were safe and accounted for. 

The girl may have had underlying health conditions, possibly of a chronic nature, that potentially contributed to her death, deputies said. 

“We’re not ruling anything out at this point,” the sheriff added. 

In most cases such as these, an autopsy is ordered so a cause of death can be determined and a ruling issued. 

Salazar said the little girl gave no indication of being ill when she went to the bathroom. After a couple minutes, he said, a staff member went to check on her and found her unmoving. 

Salazar said authorities remained on the scene for several hours “especially in light of previous events at this school.” 

In December, an ExcellED staff member was killed and a student died six days later after a parent’s car rammed a fence, knocking it into a playground area where children were having supervised activities.  

Alexia Rosales, a 22-year-old educator, perished after being pinned under the auto and the fence. A critically injured 1-year-old student, Mkaya Amrani, died six days later from injuries suffered in the incident. 

In November, ExcellED preschool teacher Alfredo Xavier Marmolejo, 29, was arrested on warrants charging him with three counts of injury to a child, after video surveillance taken from inside a classroom showed an educator using force on the students. 

The man in the video is seen grabbing a 2-year-old by the arm, pointing his finger at the child’s face, dragging the child by the arm, picking up the youngster and then slamming the child down onto a chair, according to reports.