Teachers, students mourn death of Santa Rosa teen

Students and staff at two local high schools are mourning the death of a Ridgway High senior who apparently took his own life Wednesday night, authorities said.

Brandon Michael Walton, 18, had been depressed about a variety of issues and had been living with his best friend’s family for a time on Peterson Lane in northwest Santa Rosa, police said.

Walton hanged himself with an extension cord in the garage and was found by his friend’s mother a short time after 7 p.m., police Sgt. Steve Bair said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:18 p.m., the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office said.

Walton has an uncle in Santa Rosa, Bair said. His mother lives in Nevada.

He had attended Piner High School, where he was in the class of 2008, before transferring in March 2007 to Ridgway, Piner Principal Mary Beth Halsey said.

A student there alerted administrators to Walton’s death early Thursday, and teachers were emailed with the news and notification that a school psychologist would be on campus to counsel grieving students and staff, Halsey said. Students also were allowed to leave class if they needed to, she said.

Ridgway Principal Robert Hucek was not available for comment Thursday morning, but Santa Rosa City Schools personnel confirmed Walton was a current student there.

Halsey, who took over the principal’s post last autumn, after Walton had left the school, said Walton was remembered for his involvement in music and guitar.

She said some students and teachers still knew him and were providing steady business for the grief counselor.

“I would say there are more teachers that are visibly upset than students at this time,” Halsey said, “but that’s not to minimize the student population. They actually have ways of texting each other and communicating and comforting each other through texting and so on.”