HOPEWELL - The waves of Durant High School students at Shaun Corbett's funeral signed the casket as they would a yearbook.
See you when I get there, one person wrote.
I will never forget you, and I will always love you, wrote another.
You will forever be in our hearts.
The autographs served as a tragic reminder that this, unmistakably, was the funeral of a classmate.
Corbett was 17 when he died April 23 in an auto accident just a few miles from Durant High.
Many of the students at his funeral Tuesday came straight from class.
Losing a classmate is not uncommon in high school, but the high number of auto-related deaths among Durant students has had guidance counselors working overtime to console students and stress the importance of caution behind the wheel.
Corbett was the third Durant student to die in a car crash since October, and the seventh in five years. At least nine more Durant High students and one principal have died from accidents or illness since the 1995-96 year, compounding the anguish on campus.
"It's very, very troubling, because it makes it hard to concentrate," said Ashley Anglin, 16, after Corbett's funeral. "I'm like, "Who's going to go next?' "
The crash has raised concerns among faculty about teen drivers and fast cars, and it has changed lives.
"Any time it happens, it's difficult to go through," said Durant principal Joe Perez. "But we'll rebound and we'll forge on. We've got to pay our respects and keep trying to find ways to encourage kids to drive safely."
With 2,532 students, Durant is the third-largest high school in Hillsborough County, behind Riverview and Bloomingdale. But in recent years, it has seen a higher incidence of student deaths. At least 16 Durant students have died in the past eight years, including nine in auto-related accidents.
Seven Riverview students have died since 1998, including two from auto accidents, said principal Robert Heilmann. Teacher Jim Noonan was killed in an accident March 19.
Bloomingdale High principal B.J. Stelter said that in her 11 years at the school, she can remember just three student deaths.
Whenever a student dies, the school district's Crisis Intervention Team sends counselors to meet with grieving students.
"Our whole idea is really to normalize their feelings, to help them through the grief process and facilitate it in the most efficient way," said Patrick Canavan, Durant's school psychologist. "These kids are very resilient. They understand that being born and dying are part of the process."
Though many Durant students have died in auto accidents, Canavan noted it's not always their fault.
Kori Wilson, 16, died Feb. 8 when her car was struck by a van that ran a stop sign in Dover. Carrie Smith, 16, died in 1998 after a car swerved into her lane, killing her and a friend.
But careless driving was to blame for Corbett's death, police say. He and three friends - driver David Dunlop, 17, Ryan Mitchell, 16, and Weston Gee, 16 - had skipped their first-period classes to go to Burger King.
The boys were in the Dunlop family's 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier, speeding north along a two-lane back road, when they began to race a blue Ford Mustang.
The cars were side by side - the Mustang in the right lane, the Cavalier in the left - when an oncoming sport utility vehicle forced Dunlop to swerve back into the right lane. The car clipped the rear taillight of a pickup truck and spun back across the road into a telephone pole.
Corbett died instantly. Mitchell suffered a broken arm, and walked away from the accident. His mother, Lee Ann Mitchell, said the crash and visits to his recuperating friends have been traumatic.
Dunlop and Gee were taken to Tampa General Hospital with critical injuries. This week, Dunlop was upgraded to fair condition. His family could not be reached for comment.
Gee underwent surgery; he was released last week from Tampa General Hospital, but faces a long, painful recovery. The crash shattered about 6 inches of his thigh bone and he is suffering seizures. His father said rehabilitation will take at least six months.
"This was a totally preventable situation," said David Gee, who has been campaigning to become the next Hillsborough County sheriff.
A state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records check shows that Dunlop has been cited for following too closely, passing on a hill or curve and speeding.
Authorities have recovered the Mustang that they believe was involved in the crash, but have not identified the driver or filed charges.
At the school, Canavan's team has counseled about 80 students who worry about their classmates, especially those who like to race.
"Many of the kids have high performance cars, sports cars, many of them bought by parents," Canavan said. "To put a high-powered car in a 16-year-old or 17-year-old boy's hands is a dangerous thing. Parents need to really look at what they're doing."
Such cars can be particularly dangerous on the bumpy back roads around Plant City. Corbett's crash occurred on Henry George Road, a stretch of asphalt so narrow it's impossible to pull onto the shoulder without going into a ditch.
In Corbett's eulogy, pastor Herb Williams reminded the students that cars can be formidable weapons.
"All of a sudden you're doing 70 when you should be doing 40," Williams said. "Take mind of that. Don't take life for granted. Don't take unnecessary chances with yourself and with others, and don't allow others to do it."
The temptation to speed can be magnified by the presence of a shiny new car, said Armwood driver's education teacher Mike Wyatt.
"If they've got a sports car and they have the opportunity to drive it fast, then they're probably going to," he said.
The elder Gee had just bought Weston a new truck, but he wasn't letting his son get a license until his grades improved. He said young drivers need to appreciate the responsibility of driving a new car.
That's the message driver's education teachers hope to impart. Maturity and wise decisionmaking are stressed in class as much as the rules of the road.
"They're 15- or 16-year-old young people, and they think that they're invincible," Wyatt said.
The parents of those who survived the crash are left grappling with what to do when their children are once again able to get behind the wheel.
"I am doing what every parent would do at this time - questioning everything," said Lee Ann Mitchell, Ryan's mother.
Durant assistant principal Pam Bowden is working with students to establish a safe driving committee aimed at the 10th- and 11th-graders. Many of the students who have asked to be involved, she said, have lost friends in car accidents.
"If we can save one life," Bowden said, "it will be well worth it."
More than 100 teenagers attended Corbett's memorial service and funeral.
"There were more students than I could blink an eye at," said Ellen Corbett, Shaun's mother. "I didn't even know a third of them. They were in there crying and talking and hugging. The line went on forever."
Friends remembered Corbett as a dedicated Army ROTC cadet and a loving son who never went a day without kissing his mother.
But he was also a ladies' man, always bragging about one girlfriend or another on daily fishing trips with his buddies. A comedian, he relished the chance to make people laugh. Pallbearers at Tuesday's funeral wore Three Stooges and Scooby Doo ties, a tribute to their friend's sense of humor.
Corbett's friends hope he'll be remembered by other teens preparing to get behind the wheel.
"It could happen to anybody," said Jessica Warner, a recent Durant graduate.
- Times staff writer Tamara Lush contributed to this report. Jay Cridlin can be reached at 661-2442 or cridlin@sptimes.com
