Coronado High School was mourning the loss of a 2014 graduate who was one of two teens who died at the HARD Summer Music Festival in Pomona Saturday.
Now a student at CSU Channel Islands, Katie Rebecca Dix, 19, of Camarillo, died while attending the annual two-day festival. Tracy Nguyen, 18, of West Covina died in a separate case, according to information released Monday by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
Both women were found unresponsive at the Pomona Fairplex, which is on land mostly owned by the LA County government and managed by the LA County Fair Association.
There are reports that the women died of suspected drug overdoses but the official cause of death in both cases are pending autopsies, the coroner's office said.
On Sunday, the Twitter account connected to the Coronado High School Associated Student Body (ASB) offered the campus for those wishing to mourn the loss of "our beloved Katie Dix."
Principal Jenny Moore spoke with NBC 7 Tuesday about Dix who she remembered as a sweet, warm, funny and hard-working student who competed on the Islanders girl's volleyball team.
"On Sunday we opened the gates and students visited to leave flowers," Moore said.
Students gathered in the center of campus near a garden dedicated to remember former Islanders. Flowers and mementos were left on a rock, a tradition of student expression on campus.
The rock is painted pink with glitter in memory of Katie.
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"Our campus in offices are open and administrative staff is available to support students now and throughout the year," Moore said.
Classmates on Tuesday were remembering Katie for her zeal for life.
"She was always the life of the party," said classmate McCall Ceci. "She always said 'hi' to everyone."
A 19-year-old woman also died last year after attending HARD Summer in Whittier Narrows.
Following the women's deaths, LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis said she plans to ask the county to ban major music festivals on county property in a motion to be introduced at Tuesday's board meeting.
"I am deeply troubled that this is the third such death to happen in my district in the last year and a half," Solis said. "I will be introducing a motion at tomorrow's board meeting to explore prohibiting these kinds of events on county-owned land until we conduct a full investigation into this issue."
The LA Times reported that Solis and Supervisor Michael Antonovich said they planned to ask for a full investigation to see if the festival was properly managed for the safety of attendees.
