Thousand Oaks High School Reacts to Tragedy : Counselors Try to Help Students Cope With Shock of Traffic Deaths

A crisis center was set up Monday to help Thousand Oaks High School students overcome the weekend deaths of three students in a traffic accident.

During one morning session, the center--set up in a school counseling office--was filled with about 30 students, said Principal Lance Erie. More than 250 of the school’s 2,400 students had received counseling by noon, school officials said.

Counselors from three other high schools in the Conejo Valley Unified School District helped the school’s four counselors talk to students about the shock of sudden death.

“We’re trying to bring some meaning out of this,” Erie said. “We have a lot of kids who are very torn emotionally. . . .”

The three juniors at Thousand Oaks High--Christen Edwards, 16, Gale Cottle, 17, and Nichole Yates, 16--died at Simi Valley Adventist Hospital late Saturday night after the car in which they were riding swerved off the Simi Valley Freeway and crashed into a storage tank, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Christen, who drove the car, did not have a driver’s license and had been drinking earlier in the evening, said Jim Patterson, a CHP investigator. The results of Christen’s blood-alcohol analysis will not be available until next week, Patterson said.

Two other students riding in the same vehicle were injured in the accident. Sophomore Eric Valance, 16, was listed in fair condition at Simi Valley Adventist Hospital, and freshman Michelle Vukobich, 14, was listed in serious but stable condition there, a spokesman said Monday.

Ironically, the school’s chapter of Students Against Drunk Driving plans a series of activities on “alcohol awareness” next week, said Jennifer Conrad, 18, student body president. But following the weekend deaths, student representatives will meet today to revise the plans, so that the activities can take on a more somber tone, Conrad said.

Among the planned activities was a game in which teen-agers would pretend to drive a car through an obstacle course blindfolded.

“It was trying to get across the point of not drinking and driving as nicely as possible--that it’s like being blindfolded,” Conrad said.

The deaths were announced to the student body Monday morning. After that, several students said, teachers lightened the day’s workload.

The counselors supervised support groups to encourage students to talk about their feelings and to try to make sense out of the accident.

Erie said the three teen-agers were popular on campus. Nichole, Erie said, had played on the school’s soccer and softball teams.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Lee Laxdal said he will ask the City Council to cancel tonight’s meeting in memory of the three victims.