Photo courtesy of Kasey Carroll’s Facebook.

Kasey Carroll was a loved student, teammate and friend while at Walter Johnson High School. He graduated in 2016 and went on to study to become a nurse.

Kasey Carroll, a WJ alum, loved friend, student and teammate died by suicide on November 3. After graduating WJ in 2016, Carroll went on to study to become a nurse at the University of Maryland. Carroll will be remembered as a kind and energetic spirit by the WJ community.

“Kasey was a great teammate and friend to those he came in contact with from our boys teams. He was always upbeat and worked hard to improve each year. He rose from an alternate spot as a junior to a #4 seeded 3rd doubles team in the county as a senior, along with fellow senior captain Logan Mallory as his partner,” Kasey’s coach, Mitchell Duque said.

Senior Drew Skilton was a member of the WJ tennis team when Carroll was captain during his senior year and remembers Carroll’s dedication to the tennis team and his friendly nature.

“[He was] a welcoming person, I remember talking to him in Giant one of the first weeks of freshman year when he noticed I had a tennis racket,” Skilton recalls. “He was always the one to check up on people and stay around for their matches even after the other seniors had left.”  

The student body has made many efforts in the last couple of years to increase student awareness about mental health and suicide. Clubs like Sources of Strength works to help students through their hardships and Principal Jennifer Baker has implemented mental health days and assemblies to encourage students to start the conversation about mental health.

The Carroll family has already been given much support from the WJ community. Carroll’s high school friends and family members Lainie Jaffe, Molly Carroll, Miranda Catareves and Stefan Bakumenko have organized a Go Fund Me page to collect donations to use for the funeral arrangements. The community has already surpassed the goal of raising $1,000 and every amount helps; visit the family’s Go Fund Me for more information.

There will be a visitation and memorial service from 12-2 p.m. on Nov. 17 at the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home to celebrate Kasey’s life;all members of the WJ community are welcome to join the family at his memorial service.

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