CCHS adds counselors, clinicians as community mourns three teens

Acton-Carlisle High School will have extra mental health help through the end of the school year as the community continues grieving the deaths of three students in an April highway accident. 

Co-principals Brian Miller and Katie Stahl announced the additions in an email to families. The principals said new counselors and mental health clinicians “will be available daily to offer care, guidance, and a listening ear.” Therapy dogs will remain a fixture at the school “for the foreseeable future.” 

“This is a time of mourning, and healing will take time,” Miller and Stahl said. “We urge everyone to continue taking care of themselves and looking out for one another.”

The crash in Florida on April 21 claimed the lives of CCHS seniors Jimmy McIntosh, Maisey O’Donnell, and Hannah Wasserman.

Schools in Acton and Carlisle offered counseling after the crash. As students and staff continue to mourn, Miller and Stahl said officials onboarded several staff members to help, including two retired Acton Middle School counselors. The principals asked families to reach out if a child needs extra support.

“Grief does not follow a set timeline,” the principals said.

A fourth student was injured in the crash, which involved the students’ SUV and a tractor-trailer. That teen remained at a Florida hospital in the wake of the accident but had left as of May 6, according to a hospital employee. CCHS spokesperson Tom Lucey said school officials could not share updates regarding the student’s health unless the family asks them to do so. 

Police did not immediately cite the Florida tractor-trailer driver but said the incident was under investigation. Florida Highway Patrol Capt. Jason King said in late April that any charges would be determined over the next six to nine months. 

Trace Salzbrenner contributed reporting.