Teen’s death mourned at Marysville-Pilchuck High School

MARYSVILLE — Randy Privrasky had a plan.

He was going to graduate from Marysville-Pilchuck High School, open an indoor skate park and sell T-shirts he designed.

He planned to spend his spring break next week answering questions about business plans, payroll and profits in the state Future Business Leaders of America competition in Bellevue.

Legally emancipated from his parents, the high school senior had gone through some rough periods, but he was determined to make a better life for himself, teachers said.

Instead, he died in a police pursuit Friday night in what appears to have been his only serious brush with the law.

Police said Privrasky, 18, was speeding when a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy tried to stop him just after 8 p.m.

Privrasky didn’t stop — and the deputy followed, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said. When the pursuit reached the 7700 block of 171st Avenue SE in Snohomish, Privrasky’s vehicle left the road and hit a tree, Goetz said.

Rescue crews took Privrasky to Providence Everett Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner determined the death was accidental.

The police investigation into the crash continues, Goetz said.

Teachers said they have no idea why Privrasky would have tried to run.

“It was an unnecessary tragedy,” said Dana Krsnadas, who taught Privrasky’s junior sales and marketing class last year. “I believe sometimes these kids don’t realize the outcome of something like that until it becomes a reality.”

In mourning, students hung posters around the school with Privrasky’s smiling face and the letters “RIP.” They left flowers and candles in the cafeteria and taped a sheet of paper over the computer monitor he usually used. The paper said, “Please don’t sit here. In loving memory of Randy.”

To honor their friend and help pay funeral costs, students plan to make T-shirts with Privrasky’s artwork. He had a flair for writing friends’ names in a style that resembled spray-painted graffiti.

Marysville’s Future Business Leaders of America team plans to dedicate their performance to him next week.

Privrasky was a happy, independent kid, with a “quirky, toothy smile,” said business teacher Kris Mikesell, who taught five of Privrasky’s classes.

He often stayed after school in her classroom to catch up on work and talk about life.

“He was becoming a true leader — a true example,” Mikesell said Wednesday. “He always said he’d love to come back and talk to the underclassmen about what not to do, because he did it. Our joke was he was supposed to make it big and he’d hire me for a six-figure salary.”

She joked with Privrasky about watching his biography on the A&E channel and seeing his picture at the new Marysville-Getchell High School. She really did believe, however, that he would succeed in life and with his business.

He was already contacting vendors about T-shirt prices and scouting out locations for a skate park.

To learn more about small businesses, he had organized an upcoming field trip to Seattle’s Pike Place Market for students in the School for the Entrepreneur, his small learning community at Marysville-Pilchuck.

Privrasky lived with a friend’s family. He paid rent with money he earned selling clothes after school at the Geoffrey Beene outlet at Tulalip.

“There was a uniqueness about him,” said Mikesell, who is also the business group’s adviser. “He shows that you can get through the hard times and come out on top — and he was going to do it.”

During his freshman and sophomore years, Privrasky played soccer, first for the C-squad and then for the junior varsity team. He volunteered to coach youth soccer teams and was “turning a lot of corners in his life,” said Kyle Suits, the former varsity soccer coach.

As the lead teacher for the School for the Entrepreneur, Suits also knew Privrasky from class.

The last conversation they shared was after school Friday, a few hours before Privrasky died. For the first time, Privrasky opened up to Suits about some of the challenges he faced growing up.

“The last thing he said was, ‘I’ve accepted what happened to me and despite what happened to me, I’ll be successful anyway,’” Suits said. “I believe him.

“Certainly if people are writing about him and with the outpouring from students and staff, he was successful. Maybe not in the traditional way, but he certainly made peoples’ lives better.”