LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — This August will be one year since Janee Washington Robinson and husband Eric Robinson’s son died during a heatwave in the Lake Elsinore area. Janee Washington Robinson said it was a painful moment she’ll never forget.
“I was like ‘Mama made it. Mama made it, baby. Mama’s here!’ I saw his little face. He kind of looked up at me and then his head went down and I knew right there, he was gone,” Yahushua’s mother said.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff Department Coroner’s report, 12-year-old Yahushua Robinson collapsed during his physical education class late August last year. The report’s findings listed a coronary artery anomaly, a heart defect, to be his cause of death with presumptive environmental heat exposure and recent physical exertion to be significant contributing factors. The Lake Elsinore area reached 107 degrees that day, according to the National Weather Service.
Eric Robinson said it was a hot day that should have prevented physical education classes from being outdoors.
“Dehydration, the element, all the things that we know was a major factor in him passing away. He’s a 12-year-old kid. We live in the Inland Valley. This isn’t the first time we had a heat wave out here,” he said.
Spectrum News reached out to the Lake Elsinore Unified School District and the California Department of Education about school protocols during excessive heat days. They did not respond to the requests for comment. But one bill could make protocols and guidelines for how California school campuses manage extreme weather days, mandatory. State Sen. Melissa Hurtado co-authored Senate Bill 1248, also known as Yahushua’s Law, in response to the boy’s death. Hurtado said plans are needed to protect students on some of the year’s hottest days.
“When it comes to our youth while they are in school, we have to have some sort of plan in place so that they are protected. We know that it can be dangerous and fatal, and we want to make sure that we avoid that at all costs,” Hurtado said.
The unexpected loss of Yahushua has been a difficult adjustment for Eric Robinson and his family. But he said, hearing his friends and the community share what his son had meant to them, meant the world to him.
“Seeing all his friends and stuff and all the impact he had on their lives at 12? Yeah, he truly was him,” he said.
“I AM HIM” was a phrase that Eric Robinson said his son would often say to highlight the confidence and greatness he had in himself. Despite their grief, Janee Washington Robinson and Eric Robinson are now advocating for SB 1248 in his name, hoping to prevent this from ever happening again.
“I wanted this bill to help others because losing a child is a whole different kind of pain,” she said.
If it passes, the bill would require the California Department of Education to create extreme weather guidelines for all school districts and schools to follow by January 2026.