Giovanny, right, died in a one-car crash Sunday morning on Highway 22 and his twin brother Jonathan was seriously injured. The boys were Sue Buel Elementary School fifth-graders.

Submitted photo

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Giovanny and Jonathan Esparza not only were twins, they were best friends, said Stephanie Legard, their principal of Sue Buel Elementary School.

At Newby Elementary, where the boys went to fourth grade last year, Principal Mark Hinthorn recalled, "They finished each other's sentences. That twin symbiosis was very evident."

That close relationship is weighing on the principals' minds as their schools react to the loss of one twin, Giovanny, who died in a weekend car wreck, and the serious injury of the other, Jonathan, who is recovering in a Portland hospital.

The boys were riding early Sunday morning with their mother, their two brothers and their baby brother's father when the family car crashed on Highway 22 near Dallas.

The baby's 19-year-old father, who was driving, also died in the rollover. Arrangements are under the direction of Macy & Son Funeral Directors.

The twins had transferred to Buel in September, just after the start of the new school year.

Giovanny was in Terri Rinehold's room and Jonathan in Erin Moran's. Last week, their mother visited both teachers for conferences.

Although they weren't in the same classroom, as they had been at Newby, the twins hit the playground together at recess time. Usually they headed for the soccer field.

"Giovanny was a really friendly kid, but quiet," Legard recalled. "He kind of kept to himself, and his brother, but I saw a spark in him playing soccer."

She and other Buel staff members learned about the wreck Sunday afternoon.

It was "terrible, terrible news," the principal said. But he said, "We had a little time to process it, so on Monday, we could be strong for our students."

On Monday, the district brought in four counselors from Youth and Family Services to supplement its school counseling staff. Members of the district office staff also spent time at Buel to offer comfort to the twins' classmates.

Many students took advantage of a safe room where they could share their feelings about the tragedy, Legard said. He said, "We're all thinking about Jonathan, and what a huge impact this is on his life, to lose his twin, his brother and his best friend."

Former classmates at Newby also shared stories about the twins Monday. Hinthorn and counselor Cameron Urnes visited fifth-grade classrooms to encourage students to remember Giovanny and think about Jonathan during his recovery.

Many Newby students remembered them, the principal said.

"They definitely were nice kids who were well regarded," he said. "They made a big impact."

Students at both schools made sympathy and get-well cards to send to Jonathan in the hospital. Hinthorn also sent home a letter to parents saying the tragedy had sparked discussions about death and dying and about the importance of appreciating life every day.

It also sparked another discussion at Newby - about the importance of wearing seatbelts. The issue first arose in March 2008, when two Newby girls, Soraya and Saira Medina-George, died in a car wreck on Wallace Road over spring break.

In Sunday's wreck, the mother was buckled in, but the driver and children were not. And she emerged virtually unscathed.

"Kids ride in the back and need to be buckled up," Hinthorn stressed to his students. "Don't allow that not to happen. Just insist on it."