The parents of an eight-year-old girl who choked to death after struggling at school have released distressing surveillance footage showing her final moments in the cafeteria.
In footage recorded on April 15, Adrian Thompson is seen rushing toward a school employee while apparently unable to breathe before running frantically through the corridors.
Her parents shared the video from Velma Penny Elementary School in Lindale, East Texas, as they seek answers over why staff members did not do more to assist their daughter.
Texas Rangers previously cleared staff at Velma Penny Elementary of wrongdoing, and no charges were filed.
‘We feel like people need to know about this,’ her mother, Anna Thompson, told KHOU 11.
The video shows Adrian leaving her lunch table at about 11.40am. She was coughing into a napkin and holding her hands near her throat.
Surveillance footage captures the final moments of eight-year-old Adrian Thompson as she choked in her school cafeteria
Adrian Thompson, eight, approached an adult for help while choking. Her parents are questioning why school staff did not do more to help her
Moments later, she walked up to an unidentified woman and tapped her on the arm.
According to the Texas Rangers’ report, the employee thought Adrian was ill and directed her toward a trash can.
The report says the woman then asked Adrian ‘if she wanted to go to the restroom’. The child indicated that she did.
The staff member then sent Adrian through the cafeteria’s double doors, according to the report.
The Texas Rangers’ account does not describe what happened immediately afterward.
However, surveillance video shows Adrian returning to the cafeteria just 13 seconds later and seeking help from the same employee.
Clearly panicked, Adrian waved her arms as she approached the woman.
The employee appeared to direct her toward the exit and followed as Adrian left the cafeteria once more.
Additional footage from the school corridors shows Adrian running toward the nurse’s office.
The Texas Rangers report states that Adrian approached the nurse ‘pointing to her mouth and trying to speak’. She then ‘began turning blue in the face’, according to the report.
After struggling in the cafeteria, Adrian ran through the school corridor toward the nurse’s office
Adrian’s devastated parents released the footage as they questioned why school employees did not do more to save their daughter. She died in the early hours of April 16
Adrian’s parents said they were ‘heartbroken’ after the death of their eight-year-old daughter
The nurse told investigators that she performed the Heimlich maneuver, but Adrian collapsed. She checked the girl’s pulse and began CPR.
No surveillance footage from inside the nurse’s office appears to show Adrian collapsing.
Video from the school entrance shows paramedics performing chest compressions as Adrian was taken from the building at 11.55am.
She was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, where she died in the early hours of April 16.
Her parents have started a fundraiser to help cover the medical expenses from Adrian’s emergency treatment, including a life flight to Dallas as medical teams tried to save her.
‘Our daughter, Adrian, passed away on 4/15,’ they wrote on the fundraising page.
‘She was eight years old. We are heartbroken. She was loved beyond words, and our lives will never be the same.’
Our News Outlet has contacted Velma Penny Elementary School for comment.
