{"id":85037,"date":"2026-01-12T23:36:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85037\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T23:36:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:36:05","slug":"abington-heights-laments-losses-of-student-recent-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85037\/","title":{"rendered":"Abington Heights laments losses of student, recent graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Abington Heights school community mourns the deaths of two young adults who were killed in separate car crashes on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Autumn Beemer, an 18-year-old Abington Heights student, died in a one-car crash in Newton Twp., South Abington Twp. police confirmed.<\/p>\n

Marshal Gordon, 19, of Clarks Summit, a 2024 Abington Heights High School graduate, died in a crash while traveling south on Route 92 in Gibson Twp., Susquehanna County, state police said.<\/p>\n

Peter Smith, director of student services for the Abington Heights School District, described the atmosphere around the high school Monday as \u201cshocking and confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a community, including teachers, staff, counselors, and our students, who are grappling with two deaths of young people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of a shocking moment in a young person\u2019s life and it obviously affects teachers who are involved with these kids and spend a lot of time with them. They have their own thoughts and emotions to work through as they\u2019re trying to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine while the school is grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gordon<\/p>\n

Gordon (Courtesy Abington Heights High School)\n<\/p>\n

\"Beemer<\/p>\n

Beemer (Photo courtesy Abington Heights High School)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

Gordon (Courtesy Abington Heights High School)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Police responded to Winola Road around 4:34 p.m. and discovered Beemer had lost control of her Chevrolet Trailblazer and went off the roadway, Patrolman Anthony Percival said.<\/p>\n

The crash, which was weather-related, remains under investigation, Percival said.<\/p>\n

Doug Cook, senior director of college advancement for Johnson College, confirmed Beemer was studying welding in the college\u2019s Industry Fast Track Program, a partnership between Johnson and local school districts.<\/p>\n

Smith characterized Beemer as a driven student eyeing her next step in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutumn was really focused on her career,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was involved with Johnson College, studying welding technology. She was a very hands-on learner and had a strong sense that she was going to go right out into the world of work, and be successful, right out of high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon lost control of his Ford F250 SuperCab truck on an icy roadway around 6:05 a.m. and struck an embankment and several small trees, coming to rest on the passenger side, troopers said.<\/p>\n

Gordon \u2014 who was not wearing a seat belt \u2014 was partially ejected out of the passenger side front window and pronounced dead at the scene by the Susquehanna County coroner\u2019s office, state police said.<\/p>\n

Smith remembers Gordon\u2019s bubbly personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarshall\u00a0always had a smile on his face,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe just seemed to be a genuinely happy, carefree kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Abington Heights School District sent out an email Monday morning announcing the deaths of Beemer and Gordon. Additionally, the district implemented a two-hour delay Monday to organize counseling and support services for students and staff members, school officials said.<\/p>\n

As a way to help them process the loss, students in Beemer\u2019s English class wrote individual letters to her family, wishing them well and offering support, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a district this big, you\u2019re going to run into people passing away unexpectedly,\u201d Smith added. \u201cWe\u2019re always prepared for it, and it always looks different; we just go in with as many resources as we can put together to support our students and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith noted that Beemer and Gordon were different types of students but stressed both were respected around the school community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a general sense that these were good people, and they were well liked by teachers and their peers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a tragic loss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abington Heights school community mourns the deaths of two young adults who were killed in separate car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1993,39564,201,182,139,28,4373,178,180,179,6799,2942,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-85037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-clarks-summit","9":"tag-dalton","10":"tag-lackawanna-county","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-ransom-township","15":"tag-scranton","16":"tag-scranton-headlines","17":"tag-scranton-news","18":"tag-south-abington-township","19":"tag-susquehanna-county","20":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}