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School left stunned by string of tragedies
By KENT FISCHER © St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001 NEW PORT RICHEY -- It's not been an easy time of late for students and staff at Ridgewood High School. The school has endured four highly publicized deaths in the last 15 months. The students there, said one parent, have learned quickly how to cope with grief. "We've got some of the strongest classes" of kids, said Roxanna Torre, a mother of a Ridgewood student and head of the school's Parent Involvement Committee. "We really have taken our punches. They were all very high-profile tragedies that we've suffered." In October 1999, William Hulton, the school's much-admired assistant principal, died suddenly of a massive heart attack at his home. Hundreds of students, teachers and community members attended his funeral at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in New Port Richey. "The hole this leaves at Ridgewood is immense," principal Art O'Donnell said at the time. The school had barely begun to recover from Hulton's death when student Teddy Niziol was accidentally shot to death in the school's parking lot. It was the first time in memory that a Pasco student had been violently killed on a school campus, and it came just as the nation had endured a string of horrific school shootings. Niziol's death played on the local news for weeks, and the shooting continues to grab headlines through lawsuits and ongoing legal proceedings. Less than a month into this current school year, 17-year-old student Eric Przybyszewski died after overdosing on the drug Ecstasy at a party with five other teens. Scores of students attended Przybyszewski's funeral where an emotional classmate urged her friends to stop taking drugs. Przybyszewski's death forced parents and school administrators to recognize the dangers of the new party drug Ecstasy. Just last month, Ridgewood lost another student. Ashley Morrison, a 16-year-old sports star and popular student, died suddenly of encephalitis. Morrison's death was the hardest one to take, several students said this week, because she was a strong, energetic kid who fell to a rare and mysterious illness. "Ashley didn't do anything to deserve it," said her friend, Kevin Brantley. "One day she was fine and the next day she was dead. That was hard." Recent coverageSchool remembers educator (October 16, 1999) Students remember teen lost to drugs (September 12, 2000) Deputies: Ecstasy overdose killed teen (September 10, 2000) Teammates mourn sudden loss of friend (December 13, 2000) Teen's sentence may help others (October 18, 2000) A school's worst fears realized (January 20, 2000)
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