Boxes of Kleenex sit alongside pens and markers that Saratoga High School students used last week to write notes and letters to former classmate Jeff Swanberg. The banners, which extended to three different tables, were to be given to Jeff's parents.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Saratoga High School mourns again
Jeff Swanberg dies in auto accident
By Rebecca Ray
During their finals week, Saratoga High School students mourned the loss of fellow student Jeff Swanberg, the fourth SHS student to die since May. On Sunday, Jan. 14 at 5:40 a.m., Swanberg and Jordan Gill, another SHS senior, were traveling from Santa Barbara, where they had spent part of the holiday weekend, up Highway 101, and had almost reached King City, when Gill, who was driving too fast on the off-ramp to Lockwood Road, slammed on the breaks and lost control of the Ford Mustang he was driving, causing it to turn over before it landed on its roof off the ramp, California Highway Patrol public information officer Richard Near said.
Swanberg, who was probably asleep, suffered major head and chest injuries. An ambulance took him to San Jose Medical Center, where he died that evening at 6:30 p.m.
The CHP is investigating the approximate speed the vehicle was traveling, which could take a couple of weeks, Near said. The CHP will recommend to the Department of Motor Vehicles that Gill's license be suspended and will send a report to the district attorney's office for review. CHP officers reported that Gill had consumed alcohol, but was not under the influence. Both Swanberg and Gill wore seat belts, and there is no indication that Gill fell asleep at the wheel, Near said.
Gill, who suffered seat belt abrasions and lacerations and abrasions to the head, face and hands, was released from Mee Memorial Hospital in King City after treatment, Near said.
Swanberg, 18, was a top student and gifted athlete who was a favorite among teachers and whom other students looked up to, SHS administrators said. He was also a handsome young man with a bright smile who was passionate about everything he did and could energize others, they said.
"Because he was so full of life, you can hardly believe he's not here," said SHS English teacher Kerry Mohnike, who taught Swanberg during his junior year.
Swanberg, an Eagle Scout, had just been accepted by the U.S. Naval Academy, and had applied to UCLA, Stanford and other top schools, who have yet to respond. A Commended Scholar with the National Merit Scholarship program, Swanberg scored in the top 5 percent out of all the students in the nation who took the PSAT that year. Swanberg, an A and B student who took high-level classes, planned to study business, political science or engineering in college, SHS Principal Kevin Skelly said.
Nina Whitcanack, Swanberg's academic advisor, who had known Swanberg since she was his counselor at Redwood Middle School, said that even in middle school, she could see that "he was a shiner." Swanberg was student body president his eighth-grade year. "Putting himself in leadership positions came natural to him," Whitcanack said. "He wanted very much to excel at whatever he was doing."
Swanberg's desire to excel carried over to football, which he played throughout high school. Last season, he played outside linebacker and was a captain on the varsity team. Swanberg was an all-league varsity football, as well as junior varsity baseball player.
But coaches didn't just admire him for his athletic ability. "He was a guy who would empty his tank on every game," Kurt Heinrich, his football coach, said. Last season, Swanberg was chosen as the team's most inspirational player.
Popular Student: Jeff Swanberg
Swanberg stood out for other reasons. "He was not afraid to share his opinion on any subject," Whitcanack said.
One time, when Swanberg was in Mohnike's class, there was a sentence on the board that said that someone other than Joe Montana was the best quarterback ever. Even though the sentence was only there to teach a grammar lesson, Swanberg took exception to it, Mohnike said. "He started a debate and wouldn't drop it," Mohnike said. "He would argue with you until you were sick of him arguing."
Teachers and students also knew his politics. Football trainer Amy Obenour said that Swanberg, a staunch Republican, often debated with Democrats and Democrat-sympathizers on campus.
"People noticed him immediately," Whitcanack said. "He could make himself at home in any group, parents or kids."
Swanberg didn't even hesitate to correct teachers, Mohnike said. But, she added, teachers couldn't help but like him, and he was fun to disagree with because a person could disagree with him in good spirit. In fact, the kids who liked him the most were probably the ones who debated with him the most, Mohnike said.
In a letter of recommendation that Heinrich wrote for Swanberg, Heinrich said that if he had a son, he would want him to be like Swanberg, Heinrich said. "He was definitely the guy who we'd love all the kids going through the Saratoga High School program to emulate, not just in football, but as students," Heinrich said.
Four SHS students have died within the last eight months. On Sept. 3, juniors Eleanor Patrick and Nicola Rooke died in a car accident, and in May, senior Lancy Chiu committed suicide.
On Jan. 15--the Martin Luther King holiday--students and SHS administrators came to school and tried to contact everyone in school about Swanberg's death, even though school wasn't in session. Throughout the week, counselors and advisors held small-group support sessions for students. Skelly gave all students the option to postpone their finals and encouraged teachers to weigh finals less heavily.
Students, faculty and staff wrote messages to Swanberg and his surviving family members--his parents, Richard and Jacqueline, and his 19-year-old brother, Scott, who graduated SHS in 1999 and attends UC-Santa Barbara--on strips of paper, which they brought to the memorial service on Jan. 18, at Los Altos United Methodist Church.
A string quartet comprised of SHS students performed at the service, where members of the varsity football team wore their jerseys, and Boy Scout leaders and troops wore their uniforms. Swanberg was laid to rest the day before at a private burial at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Los Altos.
"He knew he was going to do well," Whitcanack said. "We miss him very much. He leaves a big hole."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
