Carrillo student athlete dead after apparent suicide

The Maria Carrillo High School community once again is reeling from the loss of a student, this time the apparent suicide of senior scholar and athlete Jonathan Field.

Field, 17, was found dead in the garage of his family’s Rincon Valley home around 5 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

A bright and promising student, Field was in the process of applying to some of the nation’s top universities and had been honored repeatedly as a scholar athlete, Maria Carrillo Principal Mark Klick said.

He played soccer, basketball and tennis, even as he excelled in courses like calculus, oceanography, Advanced Placement physics and Advanced Placement English literature.

Numerous Advanced Placement courses allowed him to earn a Grade Point Average “way over a 4.0,” Klick said.

“He was a very bright kid, no doubt about it,” he said.

Field also participated in a peer counseling and mentoring program at the school and was a tutor to elementary students, Klick said.

Field’s parents, Pam and David Field, a yoga instructor and naturopath, have an older son, Michael Field, 20, a Carrillo grad and Brown University student.

Those who knew Jonathan described him as a sweet and friendly young man.

His death follows closely the Nov. 20 death of 2004 Maria Carrillo graduate Brenna Fessenden, 20, who died in a bus rollover in Ghana.

Among Field’s teammates on the Maria Carrillo soccer team last year was sophomore Garrett Fogg, who died July 1 after a seven-week battle with bacterial meningitis.

As word spread of Field’s death Wednesday evening, students began gathering at the home of Fogg’s parents, Lisa and Greg, just so they could be somewhere together, said Lisa Fogg, whose daughter, Leanne, is a senior.

“The kids were very quiet for a long time and just sat, and nobody had any answers,” Lisa Fogg said. “We just had questions of why and did anybody know anything.”

Fogg said more than anything she hopes the kids will keep talking and communicating.

“He had a great family and the most wonderful parents, and him, too,” Fogg said. “He’s a great kid.”

Police said the teen hanged himself. Grief counselors were on campus today, and students have been free to wander in and out of class, talking with counselors in the library and gathering in the quad to begin their grieving, Klick said.

“Everybody deals with it in a different way,” he said.