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Maui students
try to deal with
crash deaths

Lahainaluna High School offers
counseling following Sunday's
head-on wreck that killed two

---

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

LAHAINA -- Lahainaluna High School senior Ryan Praver was an exceptional student.

Trini Schoener had a generous heart -- so much so that she worked as a volunteer in the Baldwin High School administrative office before her graduation this year.

Police investigators are looking into the cause of the crash in west Maui that killed both of them Sunday afternoon and awaiting the results of toxicology tests.

Police said the car Praver was driving was traveling west on Honoapiilani Highway and tried to overtake several cars when it struck a four-wheel drive vehicle head-on.

Police investigators said that according to a witness, the car was traveling about 50-55 miles an hour between the Lahaina pali and Olowalu, where the speed limit is 45 miles an hour.

Schoener's mother, Karen, said Praver showed up at her family's house and needed a ride home to west Maui.

She said her daughter was tired and let Praver drive the Schoener family car to return home.

"She was always helping those who needed help," Karen Schoener said. "She was a real good daughter."

Some 75 students gathered in the Lahainaluna High auditorium to undergo counseling yesterday.

"We're trying to provide the support that's necessary to go through grieving," Lahainaluna Principal Michael Nakano said.

Nakano said many students were writing letters to Praver's parents.

Praver, 16, was such good student that he had skipped a grade and was taking an advanced placement class in English.

"He was so well read. He was a very gifted young man," said Carol Jung, the school's student services coordinator.

"It's such a heartache. He had so much to offer. He had so many wonderful qualities. It's a loss to the student body. I felt he was a model for others to look up to."

Jung said Praver didn't let academics take over his life and was a well-rounded student who had many friends and enjoyed surfing.

She said Praver had been surfing for only about a year before he began entering local competitions.

"That takes courage, drive and ambition," she said.

Lahainaluna counselor Leo Delatori said Praver had taken honors classes and was planning to attend college.

"He was looking at schools on the mainland," Delatori said.

Philip Gilbert, who taught Schoener in her junior and senior years, described her as someone who always thought of others.

"She worked at the registrar's office, helping with filing," he said. "To me she was just a sweet, young lady."