Allen Swadley, 32, of San Jose, was jailed after being arrested on Feb. 20<\/a>. He is charged in the shooting deaths of Lori Simonds, 67, and her son, Evan James Simonds, 28, both of Pleasanton, who are his ex-girlfriend\u2019s mother and brother. Swadley worked as an athletic trainer at Fremont High School from 2023 to 2025. He attended games to treat athletes\u2019 injuries and taught kinesiology classes.<\/p>\nBeardsley said she saw Swadley regularly last year for help with volleyball injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were definitely a lot of students who were very, very close with him,\u201d Beardsley said, adding that he also worked closely with the football team.<\/p>\n
Fremont High junior Avani Malunjkar also regularly met with Swadsley because she is interested in a career in health science. Malunjkar said he talked about his girlfriend at times. \u201cHe actually asked me to help plan a first date with her,\u201d Malunjkar said.<\/p>\n
Malunjkar also said Swadsley worked with many student-athletes. \u201cAny athlete that\u2019s ever been injured knows who he is, because he was very much involved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Student-athletes said they are finding ways to cope with the news by talking among themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking about it is important, because you\u2019re able to get what you\u2019re feeling out,\u201d Maljunkar said. \u201cAnd that helps process what you\u2019re feeling, rather than bundling it up and just letting it sit inside you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Principal Bryan Emmert said Fremont High School does offer resources for students struggling to cope with any issue. Students can request to be seen by the school therapist, for example, by filling out a form on the school website.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put in what\u2019s going on, what their issues are, what their challenges are, and then our mental health team tries to address the people with the most immediate concerns,\u201d Emmert said. He said the school can also make recommendations for additional outside support.<\/p>\n
Emmert also mentioned The Nest, a wellness space where students can take a mental health break from class for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Alejandra Flores, the school Wellness Space support specialist, said the district strives to support mental health and provides wellness resources for the community, including students, staff and parents.<\/p>\n
The Nest\u2019s check-in form includes a question regarding self-harm and suicide, for example, which could be flagged and sent to the school\u2019s crisis team. Flores also mentioned the school-based therapist, a family and community liaison, and other student wellness resources.<\/p>\n
Flores said, however, that it has been difficult getting students involved with school-provided resources and staff.<\/p>\n
Junior Kashika Poogalia, a tennis player, said she was unsure about using school resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with those free resources, how do you know you can trust them?\u201d she asked. \u201cIf stuff like this happens, people like this are hired, how do you know you can trust anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n
Abigail Min is a member of the class of 2027 at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school and college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,861,7,8,138,4730,23,100,88,90,89,198,200,2442,203],"class_list":{"0":"post-239823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-bay-area-crime","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","13":"tag-k-12-education","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-san-jose","17":"tag-san-jose-headlines","18":"tag-san-jose-news","19":"tag-santa-clara-county","20":"tag-south-bay","21":"tag-south-bay-crime","22":"tag-sunnyvale"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}