Apex teen, a school leader, dies at camp

APEX -- Grief counselors will once again be on hand today at Apex High School as students struggle to make sense of another accidental death.

Ozzie Vargas Jr., the school's lively and much-loved student body president, died Saturday after falling from an airborne water ride at a Christian camp in Granville County. Vargas, 17, is the third Apex High student to die this calendar year, which has been marked by a rash of teen deaths in Wake County.

"Between us and Wakefield, we've been hit pretty hard," said Apex High Assistant Principal Luther Thomas, referring to four Wakefield High Students who died in a fiery car wreck in March.

That accident and several other student deaths this year were alcohol-related, a fact that had bothered Vargas. Maria Comploier, Vargas' mother, said those incidents had prompted her son to become active in Apex High's chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions.

"He just didn't want any more students to die in those type of tragedies," Comploier said.

Vargas died at Camp Oak Hill, 18 miles north of Oxford, where he was on a weekend retreat with about 200 other members of Apex Baptist Church. The senior fell to his death while riding on one of two zip lines that run from a 47-foot tower into a lake. Vargas' harness released from the line before he reached the 9.5- acre lake, said his cousin Kyle Medero.

Medero, 16, was sliding down the other zip line when Vargas fell. The accident caused Oak Hill to shut down the zip line and left many fellow campers devastated, said Peter Dubbelman, minister of administration at Apex Baptist.

'Effervescent leader'

On Sunday, friends and family remembered Vargas as a happy-go-lucky teen who was always quick with a laugh or a hug.

"This is Ozzie Vargas ... I hope you're having a good morning," was his standard greeting before he led Apex High's student body in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

"He messed [the pledge] up every day," Susan Barritt, a math teacher at Apex High who taught Vargas for five semesters, remembered fondly.

Vargas' interests were as varied as his cadre of friends. He was openly dedicated to his faith, played the drums, was a member of the school's junior varsity soccer team and worked at N.C. State's Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. He hoped to attend NCSU next year and become a video game programmer.

"Ozzie was an effervescent leader," Dubbelman said. "He captured a lot of hearts."