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“Agi always had a smile on his face. I had him as a student junior year, and he was full of energy and curiosity. His loss is heartbreaking,” said Art teacher Kathryn Katcher.
Agustin “Agi” Sacchi, a 2016 Aragon graduate and student at the College of San Mateo, died on Nov. 28 after suffering critical burns due to a severe car accident. He was 18.
Sacchi was driving on Nov. 24, Thanksgiving Day, when he was struck by an alleged drunk driver. He suffered third degree burns, and was taken to the intensive care unit at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Burn Clinic, according to his sister Ariana Sacchi.
After four days, Sacchi hadn’t started responding to touching or hearing, and his brain was extremely swollen and damaged by the accident. His family chose to take him off of life support.
“We as a family have decided to disconnect Agi from the machines,” his sister Ariana said in a journal update on the website CaringBridge, “so that he does not suffer any more and is able to pass on in peace and reunite with God in heaven.”
After his accident, Ariana had set up a GoFundMe page for donations to help pay for medical costs. Following his death, Ariana stated on the page that the donations would be used to pay for any existing medical bills as well as funeral expenses. As of Dec. 3, the page has raised $28,520.
She also set up the CaringBridge page to update friends and family members on Agi’s condition throughout the week.
Sacchi’s family held a memorial mass for him on Nov. 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the Corpus Christi in San Francisco. According to English teacher Holly Estrada, who taught Sacchi in her Speech class when he was a senior at Aragon, over 500 people attended the service.
“I have so much more respect for him because of the incredible family that he came from and the incredible community that surrounded him. I’m very moved by things I didn’t know about Agi’s life that I admire even more,” says Estrada, “[At the service,] people were very loving with each other. They were very respectful. The family was so unified and brave and dignified that it was just very inspiring to see more than I knew about him [as a student], and just what an incredible community he had.”
Adds Sacchi’s junior year English teacher, Sandra Skale, “There were a bunch of teachers at the church. His parents seem at peace with their religious beliefs and so thankful to see this outpouring of love for his son. There were lots of Aragon alumni, current students and teachers. Everyone wanted to come together and feel something. I think his bright spot is shining somewhere else now.”
On the same day as the memorial service, Aragon students had the opportunity to share their thoughts for Sacchi during lunch at school. Students from the Aragon Renaissance Leadership Student Recognition Commission created a poster for him, and students and faculty used markers to write notes on the poster. The class gave the poster to Sacchi’s family.
“We wanted to recognize him, and let people know he will never be forgotten. We wanted to preserve the memory of who he was. He was always smiling, he was always nice to people, he was always positive,” says junior Osvaldo Hernandez, a Student Recognition Commission member who knew Sacchi when he was at Aragon.
The school also responded in other ways.
“We had extra counselors on site. We just wanted to be prepared when students came back on Monday and Tuesday, especially when the final news came out,” explains vice principal Ron Berggren.
Sacchi was a member of Aragon’s inaugural Creative Writing class, and the class’s teacher, English teacher Genevieve Thurtle, is holding an alumni reading in honor of Sacchi on Dec. 19, at 3:30 p.m. in the Aragon library.
“I’ve invited all of last year’s creative writing students to participate,” explains Thurtle, “They can write something about Agi and read it, or they can just read a piece they’ve been working on, if they’re continuing to write, and I’ve also invited my current creative writing students to attend that too.”
Sacchi’s family is also hosting a fundraiser at Pizza My Heart in San Mateo on Dec. 22, for more help with medical bills and funeral costs.
At Aragon, Sacchi was beloved by both students and faculty,
“I knew him through soccer, and all of our soccer friends. He was always happy, he was always a smiling kid. He definitely didn’t deserve it,” says junior Grace Choy, “He was just everyone’s sunshine, and it’s hard when that goes away. But I know he’s in a better place now.”
His senior year English teacher, Vince Bravo, adds, “Agi was a hard-working kid, he had a great personality and a funny laugh. I spent about an hour [the day after Agi died] watching Hoodie Allen videos because Agi was a major Hoodie Allen fan. He’s even on the cover of one of his singles. It’s an audience shot that Hoodie Allen took looking back, and Agi’s in it. I never understood why he liked Hoodie Allen, but it seemed appropriate to listen to him.”
Sacchi had recently become godfather to a newborn niece in the family. He is survived by both his parents, as well as three older sisters, all of whom are Aragon alumnae.
Written by Karan Nevatia and Zack Cherkas. Additional reporting by Esther Lin.
