By Sara Woerter

A gloomy cloud hung over Frazier Mountain High School Tuesday. You noticed the quiet whispers when school began—no one was talking or laughing, everything was very quite. Over the morning announcements, no one mentioned Michael Manning’s death, but Economics teacher John Domke told his students that there had been an accident and a student had died. One student then asked if it was an accident and Domke said that he thought it was. No one mentioned names. After the period was over I asked the student about it. She said that Michael Manning “was a little tipsy last night and fell off a cliff.” During the break everyone went inside the auditorium. Tears streaked the faces of FMHS students. Students were red in the face and the teachers kept their composure (not to distress the students any further).

Grievance counselors were in the library for anyone who wanted to talk. Pastor Phil Wallace was one. “I hope I can put them [students] in touch with their feelings. Shock can come in the form of denial and I want them to understand the way they are feeling. If we can grieve the healing process could go a little faster.”

During lunchtime, students signed a memorial wall that read: “In loving memory… Michael Manning.” Outside, students put up a wooden cross and a cross of flowers on the main Falcon sign. ASB created donation jars for Manning’s family and Coach Prosser spoke to the football team: “… Michael is still part of our family… my heart truly goes out to you guys (the players) and as a teacher and a coach this is the hardest day of my life….we will never forget him….”

The football team plans to gather rocks behind the volleyball court, then walk up the fire science hill to create “MM” in honor of Michael. ASB will hold a rally on Thursday (which Manning’s team will be apart of). At noon Tuesday students still sat in front of the memorial wall with their heads down and the tears flowing.

What is 420?
By Patric Hedlund

A more terrible night than that of April 20, 2009 would be hard to imagine for Mountain Community parents. In Pine Mountain, where Michael’s family lives, distressed friends and neighbors gathered in the village as the news of the tragedy spread. Word crackled like an electric shock through telephone networks of local high school parents in Frazier Park, Lake of the Woods and Lockwood Valley. Some focused on the fact that “420” is a subculture term used by “stoners.”

“4/20 [is] the holiday for pot smokers everywhere,” the April 2009 issue of High Times magazine gushes. Steven Hager, Executive Editor, said in a YouTube video: “4/20 is a code word for marijuana.”

Hager said the term was originated in 1971 at San Rafael High School when a group of youth “picked 4:20 as the time they were going to meet to search for an abandoned pot patch to which they’d found a treasure map, but then it just became a code word…and it is universally adopted by millions of people around the world now,” Hager said in the video recorded in 2007. The video shows treks to high mountainous places as being a part of the 420 celebration. “High Times does not promote the use of marijuana by children..,” Hager said.

There is no evidence at this time that any substance played a part in this tragedy. Law enforcement saw no reason to test Manning’s friends at the site. Toxicology test results from the autopsy will be available by mid-June.

This is part of the April 24, 2009 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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