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Two teenage boys were found dead this weekend after drowning in the Los Angeles River near Cypress Park.
For the second time in five weeks, Superintendent Michelle King issued a statement of condolences over the drowning of an LA Unified student.
“On behalf of the district, I express my deepest condolences to the boys’ families and friends and to the Sotomayor Learning Academies community,” King said in the statement. “Their deaths are a loss for the entire LA Unified School District.”
King noted that crisis counselors and school counselors are available at the campus to provide support to students and staff.
The Los Angeles County Coroners office is looking into the cause of death for Gustavo Ramirez, 15, and Carlos Daniel Jovel, 16, whose bodies were found near the river Sunday night. The boys went missing on Friday.
A little more than a month ago, on March 26, 17-year-old Thuy Tran, a student at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, was swept into the ocean at Santa Monica Beach and drowned.
At the Sotomayor school, students took to social media to remember the boys. Gustavo played as a midfielder on the school’s junior varsity team and the team wore their jerseys to school in his honor. He was nicknamed Smiley because he always smiled, according to friends.