Friends turn to Facebook to mourn teen

Within a few hours of learning about his friend, Will Johnson’s skiing death Tuesday, Mike Peitzer decided to grieve in his own way.

The Facebook page titled “RIP William Johnson” was launched by Peitzer, who lives in Cranbrook, British Columbia, had attracted more than 50 people in the first hour and as of 2 p.m. Wednesday had 212 people on it.

The page is part video/photo scrapbook, part memorial and part teenagers coming to grips with the death of a friend.

The 15-year-old Sandpoint High School sophomore died Tuesday in a skiing accident at Schweitzer.

Some of the comments were funny — like the time Johnson and his neighborhood friends tried to buy ice cream from the ice cream truck for a shoe. The exchange is captured in a YouTube video.

Other comments included:

• “I love you, beautiful boy.”

• “No matter what he did, he did it with a smile on his face …Will, thank you for all the memories bud. R.I.P.”

• “William, you were just coming into your own form of adulthood. Your friends and family and friends of the family will love and miss you forever. You were such a joy to be around, and we will keep a smile on our faces for you!”

• “Will, your infectious smile always made my day in math. We all loved you.”

• “Will, I already miss you so much and I’ll always remember what an amazing person you were. You never failed at putting a smile on my face and I’m so sorry it had to be you :(”

• “Driver’s ed was always so entertaining because of Will — I’ll never forget this kid. I’ll be praying for his family. If only we all could have had the happiness of Will, no one would ever be upset or angry or sad. Everyone would just be happy. We’ll miss you.”

The Facebook page also was used to direct students to counselors and attempted to nip in the bud the idea of a candlelight vigil at the Johnson’s house.

“The Johnsons are not ready for any firelighting ceremonies for the family tomorrow night,” one high schooler wrote.

“Will was the best friend that I’ll ever have, and I greatly appreciate everyone trying to help me get through this. But I’m obviously not the only one, there are a few of us that were closest to Will, and are taking it just as bad as me,” Peitzer said.

“I created the page because I felt like there should be a place where people could say what they wanted about him. I was surprised at how many people joined the group, I thought that there’d be another page for him. But I feel honored that my page has been successful in such a short time. It’s all I feel I can do since I don’t live in Sandpoint anymore.”

Editor’s note: The Bee decided to keep Facebook comments anonymous because we felt the mostly teen-aged posters on Facebook should be free to make comments without publicizing their names.