Fourth student disciplined in wake of teen’s death

Dan Kulin

Monday, Sept. 15, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.

A fourth Boulder City High School student has been disciplined as a result of the principal's investigation into events surrounding the death of a football player, a Clark County School District official said Friday.

Edward Goldman, superintendent of the district's southeast region, said all four of the students are appealing their punishments to his office.

Goldman said he will probably rule on the appeals this week. He would not say who the students are, what they allegedly did wrong, or what their punishments are.

Within days of Johnny Aquino's Aug. 31 death, three students, all football players, were suspended from the team for violating School District athletic rules, their coach confirmed earlier. Goldman said he did not know if the fourth student was a football player too.

Goldman confirmed that the three players were suspended from the team, but he would not say whether the students face additional punishment.

A neighbor of Aquino's said the three football players who were kicked off the team were drinking alcohol at Aquino's apartment in the hours preceding his death.

Police say Aquino, 17, possibly died of a drug overdose but are waiting for the results of toxicology tests to say for sure what caused the death that has shocked Boulder City residents.

Aquino was the returning starting center on the football team, an avid weightlifter and was called strongest student in the school.

He juggled football, school and a job as a cashier at a local restaurant, and planned to join the Navy after high school. Aquino's parents considered him so responsible that they let him move into an apartment a short walk from their home near the end of his junior year.

Goldman said the principal's investigation concluded Friday. Originally three students were disciplined, but the investigation resulted in punishment for another student, he said.

Goldman said he didn't believe there would be any more students disciplined in connection with Aquino's death.