BOONEVILLE (KFSM) -- The Booneville community was in mourning Wednesday (Sept. 2) after a Booneville High School student was killed and another was injured in a two-vehicle accident Tuesday.
Booneville School District Superintendent John Parrish said the teenage boy and girl were leaving a visitation for another student, who had taken her own life the week before, when they were involved in the accident only blocks away.
The teens were in a Honda Civic driving southbound on Owen Street approaching the intersection of West 1st Street and did not stop at the stop sign, according to a report from Arkansas State Police. The teens drove in front of a Dodge Caravan that had the right of way, the report states. The front of the van struck the left side of the Honda in the intersection, according to the report.
The boy died and the girl was taken by helicopter to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock and is expected to be okay, Parrish said. The driver of the Dodge was also injured and transported to Mercy Hospital in Booneville, according to the ASP report.
Wednesday morning, 20 to 25 clergy and counselors met with students for about two hours to allow them to grieve the loss of their classmates, Parrish said. Students are planning a prayer vigil and discussed planting trees in their friends' honor, he said.
So far this year, the Booneville School District has lost three students.
"It just seemed like we were hit one after another and school just started -- it's the third week of school. And we didn't see any of this coming," student Jessica Scott said Thursday (Sept. 3).
She said the opportunity to make posters for the hallways of the high school helped students to heal.
"Watching all these kids get together, and they were on the floors painting these things, hanging them up. I mean you just walk up and down the hallways and it's encouraging," Scott said.
Parrish said the encouragement goes beyond the hallways of the high school -- several surrounding school districts have reached out with condolences.
"Paris School District, the Waldron School District, the Greenwood School District, the Magazine School District, Rogers School District have all reached out to us, and just let us know that they're praying for us, and praying for our young people," he said.
Parrish said he would not release the students' names out of respect for their families.
Just under 300 students attend Booneville High School.