BRENTWOOD — A 16-year-old student at Liberty High School has died following a short illness, leaving the school community reeling after three other students have died since the start of the school year.

On Monday, Caitlyn Grace Gonzales, 16, died in the intensive care unit of John Muir Medical Center after a struggle with pneumonia complicated by asthma.

The tight-knit high school in the heart of Brentwood’s downtown has reacted with shock and tears after word of Gonzales’ death spread this week. Some students haven’t returned to classes, and others have walked among the classrooms to just talk and support one another. Flowers adorn a desk where Caitlyn used to sit.

“Everyone is so impacted by this. She was absolutely amazing,” said Sarah Carlson, 15, Gonzales’ friend. “She was just so unique, different from anyone I’ve ever met. She never had a bad bone in her body, never thought anything bad about anyone.”

When Gonzales moved to Brentwood from Peoria, Ariz., in 2016, she quickly distinguished herself with straight A’s and an affinity for math, her father David Gonzales said. She dove into theater and dance and continued classes at the East County Performing Arts Center and wanted to travel to use the French she learned at school.

She found Liberty High School was more of a cohesive community than she’d previously known, her father said on Thursday.

She went to school football games, loved going to the movies and eating fries at Mel’s diner afterward and volunteered every year to clean up National Parks, including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.

Her death has hit the school community hard. Three of the four student deaths have occurred in the past two months alone. They are unrelated.

“It’s been a year filled with adversity,” LHS principal Heather Harper said. Despite the loss, Harper said, “it’s been amazing watching how this community within Brentwood has wrapped their arms around the school — around the staff and families.”

Related Articles Oakley student dies this weekend, Freedom High principal says Although rumors have spread about possible connections to the particularly aggressive flu season, that does not appear to have been a factor in Gonzales’ death. Since October, there have been seven deaths of flu patients younger than 65 in the county, with the youngest patient being 28 years old.

“There have been no influenza deaths in children in our county,” said Dr. Louise McNitt, communicable disease medical director at Contra Costa Health Services.

In early January, a 14-year-old student at Liberty High school committed suicide. Since then, his family has begun work on establishing a website to help other parents whose children may be considering suicide.

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The school has set up a crisis center within its counseling department, where school guidance counselors, as well as representatives from the Contra Costa Crisis Center and Seneca, a nonprofit mental health agency, have been on hand this week to help students process their grief. That includes one-on-one counseling, group discussions or simply providing space to do quiet activities, Harper said.

“Students have so many feelings, they may not know what to feel, and depending on who they have, as far as a support system, they may be feeling kind of lost,” said Tom Tamura, executive director of the Contra Costa Crisis Center.

The center staffs a crisis hotline around the clock for people in the county who are grieving or feeling suicidal so they can call and speak with a live person. Call 800-833-2900. The center also operates a text line seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and is working to extend it to 24 hours a day in the coming week. Text HOPE to 20121 to chat with someone who may understand what you are going through.

A Celebration of Life for Caitlyn Gonzales will be held at 6 p.m. on Feb. 9 at the Brentwood Funeral Home at 839 First St. Anyone wishing to send flowers can direct them toward the Brentwood Funeral Home’s Celebration of Life for Caitlyn.

Donations can be made in Caitlyn’s name to the Grand Canyon Association or to the Liberty High School dance or theater programs.

On Monday, Feb. 5, Caitlyn’s former classmates at Sunrise Mountain High School in Arizona will release balloons in her honor. The students will be releasing them at 2 p.m. in Arizona, which is 1 p.m. locally.