The Farmingdale High School marching band was heading off on its annual trip to Pine Forest Camp on Thursday, Sept. 21 in preparation for a four-day rehearsal, with the intention to prepare for the upcoming season. According to an article on CBS’s website (CBSNews.com), the trip was cut short due to one of the buses crashing in Orange County, New York around 1:30 PM.
While many of the bus’ passengers were able to get out safely, five students had to have a medical evacuations due to critical injuries, as mentioned in an article on the Patch’s website (Patch.com). The two chaperones, Beatrice Ferrari, who was a retired history teacher from Farmingdale High School, and Gina Pellettiere, who was the school’s wind ensemble teacher, were both confirmed dead in the accident.
Christian Gordon, a sophomore Farmingdale High School who was on the trip and on a different bus, described the event as very jarring for him, his friends, and his family. He said he felt “empty” immediately after the crash happened and while news of the accident was first being published. It is taking time for him to mentally recover, he said, and the loss of a beloved teacher and worry about the injuries of fellow classmates initially made it “very hard to grasp what truly was happening in the moment.”
For Lisa Gordon, Christian’s mother and a good friend of Pellettiere, the experience was increasingly nerve-racking as time went on, especially because of the rumors regarding who was hurt or even killed. She said she was terrified for her son and his friends before calling to check on him, as nobody knew for a while who exactly was in critical condition or even worse.
The funeral services for Ferrari and Pellettiere were held on Wednesday, Sept. 27 and Thursday, Sept. 28 respectively, according to articles on ABC’s website (ABC7NY.com). As conveyed by community members quoted in the articles, both were very influential individuals in the Farmingdale community, and the results of the day’s events will have a long-lasting impact on the school and surrounding areas.
Alexa Nutter and Angel Aguilar, a sophomore and junior respectively at Farmingdale High School, were also on the trip. Aguilar’s cousin was one of the freshmen injured during the accident, and he could only describe it as “scary for [him] and [his] entire family.” Aguilar’s cousin is doing better now, and the family waits and prays that things move towards a sense of familiarity soon. Aguilar himself was physically unharmed from the accident.
Nutter described in vivid detail the horror she faced, reiterating the wash of terror that plagued her emotions as the events unfolded. “Between rumors in the school, the news articles, and [….] my parents calling when it was all still very new […], everything was just very scary and too much to deal with in the beginning,” she recalled. She went on to explain how even though she was okay, the people she knew in the band would stay in her memories and prayers indefinitely.
The bus that crashed, carrying mostly freshman band members as well as two chaperones, rolled off the road and down an embankment; some media outlets initally reported that this may have been due to multiple failed inspections as well as a faulty tire. Farmingdale Schools, as well as other districts, will reportedly not be using this charter company in the future. As a result of the accident, there are reportedly already some lawsuits pending against the school district and the bus company itself.
