Proof Positive that life can be short...

[Josephine96]

Port St. Lucie school mourns cheerleader


By Lindsay Jones, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 4, 2003



JESSICA CLINTON: 'She was everything you would want your daughter to be.'

Paul J. Milette/The Palm Beach Post
Two St. Lucie West Centennial High School cheerleaders console each other after senior Jessica Clinton's death after practice.

PORT ST. LUCIE -- South County Stadium was awash in shades of pink at Friday night's football game between St. Lucie West Centennial High School and Jupiter High.

The cheerleaders wore matching pink sandals and pink and white ribbons in their hair. Students streaming into the stadium carried pink carnations, donned pink T-shirts and pinned pink ribbons to their shirts, all in honor of 17-year-old Jessica Clinton, the school's student council president and cheerleading captain who died suddenly at the school Thursday afternoon.

With tightly linked arms and tears streaming down their faces, the varsity and junior varsity squads -- perfectly matching from their navy blue, red and silver uniforms down to their pale pink flip-flops -- walked to the middle of the field shortly before game time to console about 20 members of Clinton's extended family. The teen girls offered pink roses and hugs as their wailing echoed through the silent stadium.

Finally, the girls released pink balloons, each carrying a personal message for Clinton, the cheerleader her friends fondly remembered as "the Barbie" of the squad.

"I felt her here in spirit with us," said cheerleader Erin Scott, a sophomore. "The last time I saw her she had a smile on her face."

Clinton was preparing for Friday's game with the rest of the varsity squad Thursday afternoon when she collapsed beside her two best friends and went into cardiac arrest in one of the school's outdoor courtyards. A coach and teacher began CPR immediately, but Clinton died at St. Lucie Medical Center a short time later from what an autopsy determined to be an undetected heart defect.

Clinton suffered from a severe deformity of the mitral valve and died from a cardiac dysrhythmia, said Merv Waldron, an investigator with the St. Lucie County Medical Examiner's Office. The defect caused a valve that allows blood to flow between the heart's chambers to malfunction, and her heart stopped suddenly, Waldron said.

The teen did not have any serious injuries from where she hit her head on an aluminum pole or the concrete when she fell, he said.

Teammates and fellow students rushed to the hospital Thursday afternoon, and after learning Clinton had died, immediately united to grieve. The varsity cheerleaders -- a tightknit squad of 20 girls -- stayed together until nearly 5 a.m. making T-shirts with sayings like "In loving memory" and "We love you Jessica" and planning for Friday's pre-game memorial.

"She had such a positive attitude," said junior Stephanie Crouch, a fellow varsity cheerleader. "My freshman year I wanted to be just like her, and this year we got really close."

The cars that filled the student parking lot at the school Friday morning were just one indication that many Centennial students shared Crouch's sentiments.

Windows of many cars and trucks were covered in homages to Clinton, with words such as "Jess I Love You," "Jessica 04Ever" and "Long Live the Queen," a nod to Clinton's selection for this year's homecoming court, which had been announced earlier this week.

"All she ever talked about was that she wanted to be homecoming queen since she was 5," said junior Tiffany Paré.

Centennial Principal Trina Trimm, who rode with Clinton to the hospital in the ambulance, closed the sprawling campus to visitors Friday to allow students time to grieve and meet with crisis counselors.

Though classes were held as scheduled, students wandered into the auditorium to meet with counselors and gathered in front of the school's entrance, where students had erected a memorial with a large pink poster bearing Clinton's picture and two giant pieces of butcher paper where students scrawled personal messages to Clinton and her family.

"It hit the whole school, even people who didn't know her," said Clay Schumann, a senior who was Clinton's pair in the homecoming court. "Nobody could dislike her. She was a perfect 10." For Friday's game, Schumann painted his face a pastel pink, with a black letter "J."

Students, parents and staff members at the game still were stunned by Clinton's death, the second death in the Centennial school family in four weeks. Teacher and coach Steve Moberg, 49, died suddenly Sept. 11 from a blood clot in his heart.

"This has just been such a tremendous challenge for our school," said Teri Pinney, the school's career specialist.

Clinton is the first St. Lucie County student to die at school in at least six years, school district spokeswoman Michelle Sjogren said, though sudden deaths from undetected heart defects like Clinton's have been reported around the country.

Three high school students from Georgia, Washington and California have died at high school athletic events from heart ailments in 2003. Hank Gathers, a college basketball player at Loyola-Marymount, Reggie Lewis who played for the Celtics and ice skater Sergei Grinkov also died from rare or undiagnosed heart diseases

[sunnyday]

My heart goes out to the family and friends of the young girl who died suddenly on Thursday. I don't think some doctors pay enough attention to the possibility of a heart defect in one so young. This type of death occurs fairly often among young people, so I think the heart should be a place of particular emphasis in physical exams.

[Josephine96]

When I 1st saw this story.. I thought she died from the fall she took.. It's funny too because even though it said she sustained no injuries from it. A friend of mine actually had the nerve to tell me the other day "Nobody is ever gonna die from just a simple slip and fall".

This proves it can happen.. even if the slip and fall is not what killed her.