Student's death a blow to school
R.L. Turner athlete killed in crash; driver has been charged

The Dallas Morning News-February 22, 2002

Author: KATHERINE MORALES, Staff Writer

Classrooms and locker rooms at R. L. Turner High School were silent last week at the news of the death of a classmate and friend.

The message carried along the halls was that sophomore Ronnie Dorsey, 16, a varsity football player, died in a car accident in Dallas.

"I couldn't believe it. ... I'd just seen him earlier that day," junior Prince Fuller said. "I used to hang out with him, and this year we really bonded - we saw each other just about every day."

Ronnie, by all accounts a popular student, headed to Dallas with friends Feb. 12.

The driver, [xxxx], 17, of Farmers Branch lost control of the car at 6 p.m. in South Dallas on S. M. Wright Freeway, near Cooper Street.

Police said the vehicle went down a grass embankment near Cooper Street and slid on its roof along a service road for about 100 feet before slamming into a tree.

Three of the car's occupants were injured, and two - Ronnie and Elmer Anthony Funes, 20 - were killed.

Two other R.L. Turner students in the vehicle, [xxxxxx], 15, and [xxxxxx], 17, were taken to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas.

[xxxxx] was released from the hospital. She could not be reached for comment. [See Notes Below]

[xxxxx] remains in the intensive care unit.

[xxxxxx], a former R.L. Turner student, is being held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas on two counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault, Dallas County sheriff's Sgt. Don Peritz said. She was arraigned Feb. 15.

"She has hired her own attorney," Sgt. Peritz said.

The district provided additional counselors at R.L. Turner the day after the accident.

"I think they can't believe it," said Janet Beeler, intervention specialist with the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district. "We did help with grief counseling that day because students do seek that."

R. L. Turner head football coach Jody Allen was one of the first people to find out about the accident.

He went with police officials to inform Ronnie's mother about the accident that evening. Ronnie's letter jacket gave police the first clue to his identity.

"He was the only freshman I remember us moving up to the [junior varsity football] squad," Mr. Allen said. "He was talented, but things like this make our other players think about their own mortality."

Ronnie was an only child; he and his mother had just moved to Las Colinas a few months ago.

"I'd been over to his house before he moved, and we always just chilled outside, played basketball - whatever," junior Broderick Watson said. "He was so funny - he always had people laughing."

To help Ronnie's family arrange a burial in Chicago, students initiated an impromptu fund-raiser and managed to get just over $400.

 "We also want to have another letter jacket made to give to his mother," Mr. Allen said. "Nobody knows what you're going through unless they've gone through it."

The Dallas Morning News - February 22, 2002

NOTES:  The toxicology reports came back negative and the girls were released from all charges