HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT DIES

Chapel Hill Student, 18, Had Been Headed For N.C. State

CHAPEL HILL -- Amrit Kaur Mahal dreamed of becoming a psychologist so she
could help children. But the 18-year-old East Chapel Hill High School
student's dream was cut short Friday when a friend found her with a needle
in her arm, suffering a seizure. Mahal died a day after she was arrested on
misdemeanor charges of carrying a weapon into the school, possessing
marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and felony cocaine possession, police
records show. Her friend also faces some charges.

Deserae Bryant found Mahal about 5 p.m. and took her to UNC Hospitals,
where she was pronounced dead, said Dr. Jason Reutter, the Durham-Orange
County medical examiner.

She had no heart rhythm, Reutter said, and emergency medical technicians
"tried everything," working for 30 minutes to revive her. But they couldn't
get a pulse.

"We don't know what she died of," Reutter said. "All we know is her friends
admitted they found her with a needle in her arm and she was seizing."

Reutter said the UNC pathologist who is conducting the autopsy was told
Mahal had a history of drug use. Toxicology tests will determine the cause
of death and will take several weeks. "I won't really know anything until
the toxicology test is done," Reutter said.

Neither Bryant nor her mother could be reached Saturday.

Mahal's father, Jogwinder Mahal, of 3912 Westchester Road in Durham, said
his daughter was a good student who had been accepted to a half-dozen
universities in California, as well as state schools in Raleigh and
Greensboro. She had opted for N.C. State.

"This is ironic. She wanted to be a psychologist so she could help
children," he said. "We're shocked."

Mahal, who had an older brother, liked sports and was on the basketball and
softball teams while she was a student at Durham Academy.

Court records show she'd been arrested last October and was charged with
fleeing police, speeding and reckless driving to endanger. When she was
convicted in April, the eluding charge was dropped. Then last week, records
say, she and Bryant were arrested at school. Mahal was to go to court July
10, records say.

"She'd been getting lots of help," her father said, declining further comment.

Mahal was a recent transfer at East Chapel Hill High after going to Durham
Academy and at least one other school. Andrew Moon, a Durham Academy
graduate who was in freshman and sophomore year with Mahal, said she'd been
having trouble in high school, stayed back a year, and had left to go to a
boarding school and other schools before enrolling at East Chapel Hill High.

"I just knew she wasn't very happy," Moon said. "She moved from place to
place. ... She was fairly quiet, but she seemed very nice. She stayed to
herself."

Because she was new, she did not know many students, said Gail Boyarsky,
her environmental science teacher. This past week, she said, Mahal helped
the freshman class with a biology field day.

"She was really a nice kid," Boyarsky said. "She was really polite and
really bright. But like any other high school kid, sometimes lost. ... It's
been really hard. We're going to miss her."

The crisis team met Friday night and Saturday, she said, and students will
be offered counseling when they return Monday. Funeral arrangements are pending.