Vigil planned for Franklin High student who fell to death from campus balcony

See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred

Community members are expected to gather Thursday evening for a vigil mourning a student who fell to his death at Benjamin Franklin High School.

The memorial at the Highland Park campus is planned for 5 p.m., according to an Instagram post, which asks the community to bring flowers and anything else to remember the student. Police have not released the student’s name, but social media posts and an online fundraiser have identified him by the first name Xavier.

Police said a boy fell from a school balcony around 1 p.m. Wednesday. The Los Angeles Fire Department took the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Though circumstances leading up to the death still were being investigated, there was no evidence of foul play, authorities said.

A video circulating online, described as occurring Wednesday at Franklin High, shows a fight in a classroom between two students, with one hitting the other, and a boy later appearing to jump off a balcony as another student approaches.

The student, who authorities have not yet named, was pronounced dead after falling from a fourth-story balcony.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating. A spokesman said Thursday that the department did not have any additional details to share.

A GoFundMe fundraising page described Xavier as “a beautiful, caring, and loving boy who meant so much to the people around him.”

The fundraiser set an initial goal of $12,000 to “cover funeral services and ease some of the financial burden [for the family] during this incredibly difficult time.”

As of early Thursday afternoon, more than $32,000 had been raised.

California teen killed in shooting at high school football game; suspect in custody Aug. 23, 2026 Young man who apparently jumped from L.A. City Hall remembered as gifted baseball player July 20, 2026 Gunman in deadly California high school graduation shooting caught in Texas, police say July 10, 2026 Show Comments California The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.

Andrew Khouri covers education for the Los Angeles Times. He previously covered housing and homelessness at The Times and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication.

More From the Los Angeles Times World & Nation

Chapter 2: The Trojan Horse In 2005, there was no bigger show in L.A. than USC football. The players were household names, celebrities crowded the sidelines, and the wins kept piling up — until Texas came to town.

How A Hillside Strangler Nearly Went Free The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.

Cheech Marin on Dodging the Vietnam Draft, Born in East LA & Why Chicano Art Is American Art Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Cheech Marin — comedian, actor, filmmaker, and one of the foremost champions of Chicano art in the world — for a conversation that spans Vietnam draft resistance, topless improv theaters in Vancouver, and the birth of an era-defining comedy act.