District Helps Montwood Students Cope With Loss

Montwood High School students wrapped up their second week of classes, and many are still trying to cope with the loss of two classmates who were killed in a wreck by a driver police said was drunk.

Aaron Carrillo and Jon Cervoni were killed July 8 when they were hit by a car while helping a friend with car trouble on Loop 375. The driver of the other car, Hector Tellez, was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter.

The Socorro Independent School District is helping students cope with the loss of their classmates. Tammi Mackeben, a grief counselor with SISD, said that since the school was on summer break, the district dispatched counselors to talk to students the week after the deadly wreck when groups of students had organized public memorial services for Cervoni and Carrillo.

“Many times it’s, ‘I should have done this, I should have said this,’ when a loss has happened,” Mackeben said. “So they help them through that grief process until they’re having fond memories of the person who’s died instead of having bad memories just of what’s happened.”

Mackeben added that many students have taken advantage of grief counseling and she plans to see more students seeking help over the next few weeks.

“Remember, everybody grieves in a very different way. Many students don’t need the grief counseling at that time — they might need it a few weeks or months later,” Mackeben said. “Many students need it immediately depending on how close they were to the student who passed away.”