Lacey Students Mourn Jesse Carbonaro, 16

Lacey Township students are mourning the death of Jesse Carbonaro, 16, of Toms River.

Carbonaro, who grew up in Forked River before moving to Toms River in 2009, died crossing Route 70 Monday evening.

While crossing Route 70 at 8:15 p.m., Carbonaro was struck by a sports utility vehicle driven by Laconda Coleman, 37, of Lakehurst. Coleman was traveling westbound on the highway near Whitesville Road, police said.

Carbonaro, a sophomore at Toms River North, was pronounced dead at the scene, Toms River Police Chief Michael Mastronardy said.

Grief counseling is being offered to students at Lacey Township High School who knew Carbonaro, Principal Will Zylinski said.

“Whenever we have a tragedy, we take care of the current students here,” Zylinski said.

Students in need of grief counseling approached the guidance office and were also identified by school staff, Zylinski said.

Approximately one dozen students are receiving grief counseling, Guidance Supervisor Deborah Desaulniers said.

“Students that we care about were upset when hearing about [Carbonaro’s death],” Desaulniers said. “We internally handle issues like that, where students are emotionally upset about the incident and grief counseling is a service we provide. We want the kids to be emotionally healthy so we can recover from it.”

The administration and staff at Lacey Township High School did not know Carbonaro personally since he had never attended the school.

“I never met the young man but good people were upset so I have no reason to think he wasn’t a good man,” Desaulniers said.

Lacey Township Middle School staff knew Carbonaro as a good and respectful kid, Guidance Counselor Carly Londrigan said. She added that he was a good student, had a lot of friends, liked art, and enjoyed being outside and playing basketball.

“We’re very sad that he passed away so young. He was a really good kid,” Londrigan said.

Carbonaro was described as a caring, funny young man who enjoyed football and playing sports with friends and who could make class enjoyable, according to a Facebook page dedicated to the teen. It climbed to more than a thousand supporters, with about a hundred posts offering condolences and sharing memories of neighborhood kickball games, school cafeteria jokes and a face that seemed to always bear a smile. Carbonaro was a tremendous New York Jets fan, and someone who you could come to when you were feeling down for understanding and acceptance, those that knew him wrote.

A Lacey Township High School student, Amanda Lynn Kurinsky, 17, wrote to Patch that the death of her childhood friend was devastating.

“You were such an amazing kid, and you'll still be my childhood best friend at heart,” she said, recalling how she and Carbonaro would swim in their pool and chase after ice cream trucks for Oreo-flavored ice cream. She said he was a “a good kid, with a great heart, such a bubbly personality.”

She recalled Carbonaro as her best friend in childhood, only to grow distant after a move before reconnecting in recent years.

"He was such a great person, warm-hearted, always laughing and smiling, great personality, quite a gentleman, and he was just overall amazing in a best friend way," Kurinsky said.