TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Students and staff at Foothill High School mourned Monday the loss of two seniors who were killed in an alleged drunken driving crash over the weekend.

Some students sobbed and others kept their grief to themselves as they dealt with the deaths of Giselle Madrid, 17, and Marilupe Madrigal, 18, said Foothill's lead counselor, Joan Herman. A "grief room" was set up in the administration building and about 20 friends of the teens came by throughout the day.

Herman said Madrid and Madrigal were similar in that both were quiet but had a special spark about them. Their smiles would light up a room, she said.

Counselors listened to students, explained the different stages of the grieving process and told them everyone deals with loss differently and there's no right or wrong way, Herman said. The faculty is also having a tough time with the deaths.

"Any time you lose a student it's like losing a member of your family," Herman said. "These two girls were just weeks away from graduation and getting ready to start their futures."

The third person killed in the crash was 20-year-old Esmeralda Soriano, a 2008 East High graduate. Principal Lee Vasquez said the East High community was mourning her death.

Soriano had been driving Madrid and Madrigal in a 1997 Plymouth Breeze late Saturday evening, according to a news release from the California Highway Patrol. Soriano was turning left from Reynolds Avenue onto northbound Weedpatch Highway when a 2000 Pontiac Trans Am driven by 19-year-old Leonel Nunez Jr. collided with the Plymouth.

Nunez had been driving southbound on Weedpatch Highway and it's unknown why he entered the northbound lane, the news release said. Officers determined Nunez had been drinking and booked him on suspicion of three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, DUI causing injury and DUI with .08 blood alcohol content with injury, all of which are felonies, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Department website.

Nunez was being held on $330,000 bail and an arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Two passengers in Nunez's car suffered major injuries, the news release said. Both Vincent Alvarez, 18, and Ricardo Parra, 20, were in fair condition Monday at Kern Medical Center, nursing staff said.

Nunez suffered a minor cut to his arm, the news release said.

A fundraiser was scheduled Tuesday for the Madrid family at Foothill. The family needs help with funeral expenses, Herman said.

This week will be an especially difficult one for Foothill students because there will be reminders throughout the week of the perils of drinking and driving. On Tuesday, the CHP will present its Start Smart Program at the school, and on Wednesday the Bakersfield Police Department's "A Life Interrupted" program will be held.