Imani Bell’s family has agreed to a $10 million settlement with Clayton County Schools. Attorneys for the Bell family say the settlement is one of the largest of its kind in the history of high school athletics. The gym at Elite Sports Academy will also be renamed in Bell’s memory at 4 p.m What the Bell family has to say about the record settlement, on Channel 2 Action News at 4:00 p.m. Channel 2’s Tom Jones has been following Bell’s case since his sources first told him of her death on August 13, 2019. Bell’s parents said the 16-year-old was forced to do conditioning exercises outdoors on one of the hottest days of the summer of 2019. The heat index made it even hotter. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy from 2019 showed Bell suffered from hyperthermia and rhabdomyolysis after exercising in temperatures that reached 97 degrees with a heat index of 103 degrees. RELATED STORIES: Eric Bell, Imani’s father, told Jones the coaches were negligent and someone needed to be held accountable. He said he is also a coach and would never send his students into the heat that led to his daughter’s death. In July 2021, a grand jury indicted Larosa Walker-Asekere and Dwight Palmer on charges of second-degree murder, second-degree child cruelty, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct. According to Bell’s family, Walker-Asekere and Palmer were two of her coaches. Attorney Justin Miller said the charges were huge news because coaches are not usually charged after such incidents. “This is only the second time in history that a coach has been charged in this way and the first time that a coach has been charged with murder,” he said last August. 2 coaches charged with murder, child cruelty in Clayton County basketball player’s death A grand jury has indicted two people in the death of a Clayton County basketball player who died after participating in practice drills during extreme heat. ©2022 Cox Media Group
