A Jacksonville family is in the throes of a legal battle against Duval County Public Schools, following the tragic death of their daughter due to an allergic reaction to nuts. Per the details from a News4JAX report, 17-year-old Kayleen Brown died after consuming baklava at a school event in April 2023—a dessert she was told lacked nuts. Despite being aware of her severe allergy to nuts, and having a management and prevention plan in place, the school reportedly failed to prevent her from leaving to treat her initial symptoms at a local pharmacy, where she ultimately suffered anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
The lawsuit, filed by Kayleen's parents, alleges negligence on DCPS for failing to correctly inform their daughter that the baklava contained nuts and subsequently mishandling the emergency by not involving appropriate medical staff or emergency services; this mismanagement ultimately led to Kayleen's death three days after her allergic reaction. According to First Coast News, the lawsuit calls out DCPS's failure to adhere to their own policies that required training staff to recognize and treat allergic reactions using an EpiPen and for failing to call emergency services as necessitated by their emergency plan.
The family's grievance also highlights that Brown was allowed to independently leave campus while in distress, a decision they claim shows a breach of the school's duty to ensure student safety. A demand of $50,000 or more is sought for damages, intended to address medical and funeral expenses, lost income, and the suffering of Brown's parents, as they stated in their legal filing—echoing the sentiments of Attorney Ted Pina, who emphasized the sometimes overlooked lethality of allergic reactions. "It’s hard to imagine sometimes that someone can die from something like this but they can and they do," Pina lamented in a statement obtained by News4JAX.
Steven Brown, Kayleen's father, expressed his anguished confusion and hope that his daughter's case could prevent future tragedies to News4JAX, "My immediate thing was, you know. ‘Why did she leave school? Or why was she allowed to leave school if the teacher was aware that she was having an allergic reaction?’ My first thing would be like, ‘Why wasn’t 911 called?’" Furthermore, the ongoing suit is posed to possibly influence how schools across the nation handle allergy-related emergencies, should it set a precedent, underscored by a report from Public Law Library remarking on the necessity for schools to take life-threatening allergies seriously, and reconsider their emergency response protocols to prevent future incidents.
