LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Emmanuel Mwakadi and his family came to Lexington from the Congo in 2016, and he was set to be the first in his family to go to college.
The 17-year-old senior had been accepted to Bluegrass Community & Technical College, and he wanted to be a police officer.
But last Friday, Emmanuel had a sudden medical emergency in class at Henry Clay High School. He was rushed to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital, where he died.
After his death, speculation began that it could have been tied to a fight he’d broken up at the school. On Wednesday, Fayette County Public Schools superintendent Demetrus Liggins released a statement addressing the “false reports circulating in the public and news media.”
In the statement, Liggins said that footage had been reviewed and that Emmanuel had not broken up a fight on the day of his death.
Emmanuel’s family’s attorney, Justin Peterson, then released a statement saying that their investigation had also concluded a fight hadn’t happened that day. But that one had occurred weeks prior.
It’s still not clear if the fight had anything to do with Emmanuel’s death, but the coroner did find that the 17-year-old had a frontal lobe brain injury.
“We're investigating,” Peterson said. “We're trying to gather all appropriate evidence to decide what exactly happened, why exactly he passed away.”
Peterson released a cell phone video that appears to show Emmanuel breaking up a fight between students. The video also shows Emmanuel being hit in the head multiple times while trying to break up the fight.
“I see students recording a fight, I see many students cheering on a fight and I see one person who is not doing either,” Peterson said of the video. “I see one person who's going to intervene and does successfully. Ultimately breaking up that fight, but I also see him get hit in that fight numerous times.”
Peterson said Emmanuel’s family said that the 17-year-old hated fights.
Whether or not the fight ultimately had anything to do with Emmanuel’s death, the familydoes question whether there’s a protocol for medical evaluations for students after physical fights at schools.
“If someone suffers a blow like that to the head in football, what do they do? They have concussion protocol,” Peterson said. “They have policies, procedures in place to ensure that these athletes are being taken care of. I think the same should happen when there's a fight.”
While the video of the fight is short and doesn’t show everything, Peterson also questioned why no faculty or staff are seen in the video.
Peterson said the family hopes there will be changes to help prevent fights in schools, and to make sure students who are involved in fights are checked out.
“It’s just a tragic, tragic story, right? It really is,” Peterson said. “So let’s honor him by showing that we’re going to do something in your honor, in your name to ensure these things don’t happen again.”
LEX 18 reached out to Fayette County Public Schools for comment and to ask about policies for checking out students after fights. The school system declined to comment.
