Student-led vigil planned for Filiberto Hernandez

The Carpinteria Unified School district’s staff and students are coping with a loss of one of their high school seniors.

A student-led vigil will be held at the Carpinteria High School Amphitheater to remember Filiberto Hernandez also known as “Fili” among his peers.

“As a mother and an educator, my heart goes out to Fili’s family and anyone who has lost a child. I can only imagine the difficulty of that experience,” said Jamie Persoon, acting superintendent for Carpinteria Unified School District.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office identified 18-year-old Hernandez as the person killed in a cliff fall in Carpinteria Monday.

The Sheriff’s Office says the 18-year-old was reported missing by his mother over the weekend.

It wasn’t until a relative and a friend who had been searching for him, that Hernandez was found “unresponsive and not breathing at the bottom of the bluffs, east of the seal reserve and rookery,” says a press statement by the Sheriff’s Office.

The school district wants to grieve along with the family, his peers and staff so a counseling center has been created inside Carpinteria High’s Library.

If you’d like to help the Hernandez Family with funeral expenses, visit this GoFundMe page.