Ramapo High School Mourns Death Of 2nd Student This Year

FRANKLIN LAKES, NJ — The staff and students at Ramapo High School are dealing with the death of a second student this school year.

Sophomore Kasie Del Otero, 16, was struck and killed by a NJ Transit train Sunday. Her death comes three months after track athlete Ben Landel died of cancer after a yearlong fight against the disease.

"The staff and students at Ramapo are certainly struggling with the loss of a second student in three months," said Beverly MacKay, superintendent of the Ramapo-Indian Hills High School Regional High School District. "It is a very difficult time for our school family but everyone is doing their best to support one another."

Kasie went out of her way to include students and make them feel welcome.

Kasie would eat lunch with some of them, and talk to them, and be a friend to them. She would hang out with them at recess, a friend, Brianna Foster, wrote on her obituary page.

"Whether or not she knew it, her one of a kind sense of humor and kind heart impacted the lives of so many the same way it did for me," Jackie Wilchek said on Del Otero's obituary page

Others agreed, noting her efforts to include everybody. "No one asked her to, and no one told her to do this," Foster said. "It was just who she was."

Landel was a standout track athlete for Ramapo.

"He was always the one person, at any race, he was always cheering everyone on. He was always the one who was saying 'come on guys we can do it.' He was always the one who would motivate others to run harder and stick together," said Izzy Boomhower, a senior and one of Landel's track teammates. "He was the fastest runner on our distance team, and he was always saying 'our team did this' or 'we accomplished this.'"

Ramapo track coach Bill Manzo said Landel had the ability to bring people together.

"There was something special about Ben that transcended team colors that made everyone a part of the same team: Ben's team," Manzo said to a crowd at a memorial walk for Landel. "In Ben's death, it is that sense of community that Ben created that helps me through my own grief. Look around you right now at this crowd and do not let your hearts be troubled, for this right here part of Ben's legacy. Even in his absence he continues to bring people together."

Related: Ramapo HS Soccer, Track Athlete Ben Landel Dies Of Cancer
Related: Bergen County Girl, 16, Killed By Train Always Made Others Smile
Related: Hundreds Walk In Memory Of Ramapo's Ben Landel

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Photos: Kasie Del Otero and Ben Landel (Vander Plaat-Vermeulen Memorial Home and Courtesy of GoFundMe, a promotional partner of Patch)