Tim Willert
LA CRESCENTA -- As police combed the Valley View Elementary School
grounds Monday for clues in the slayings of Christopher R. McCulloch and
Blaine S. Talmo, friends of the teenagers searched for answers a few
blocks away.
About 20 friends and classmates of the young victims gathered outside
the Glenwood Avenue home of David Rivera to console each other. The group
of teens, most of whom attended Rosemont Middle School with Christopher
and Blaine, were grief-stricken by the news. Some expressed anger. Most
were unfamiliar with a tragedy of this magnitude.
"Right now they're having a hard time dealing with it," said Wilma
Rivera, David's mother. "They're in shock."
David, 14, said he had known Christopher since second grade.
Christopher and Blaine graduated last month from Rosemont Middle School,
and Christopher recently moved to La Canada Flintridge, he said.
"I feel real bad," David said. "I don't know how someone could do that
to a little kid."
Fourteen-year-old Kira Yuson was among those sobbing.
"Chris was like an older brother to me," she said.
"He was like an older brother to all of us," added Joann Lugo, 14. "I
had so many classes with him. He would tell me all of his problems, and I
would tell him all of mine. He always had a smile on his face, even if he
was mad."
Glendale Unified School District Supt. Jim Brown said crisis
counselors and extra staff would be sent to Rosement and Crescenta Valley
High School to help students deal with their grief.
"When any kind of death occurs, it affects students and staff whatever
the reason," Brown said. "The news is so unexpected, so unnecessary and
so tragic, especially for the kids."
The killings caused Glendale Unified to move a child care facility for
kindergarden through sixth-grade students at Valley View to nearby
Lincoln Elementary School. About 50 students use the child-care program
and parents were informed of the killings by district officials when they
dropped off their children.
Lincoln head teacher Nina Martinez said some parents decided to call
in sick to work to stay home with their children.
"Nothing like that happens up here," Martinez said. "They can't
believe this happened. It is such a good community here. There is a lot
of shock and disbelief. This is unfortunate. Those poor kids."
Children were told nothing of the crime, Martinez. That was left up to
their parents.
Valley View is expected to reopen its child care facility on Monday
once the crime scene is cleaned, said Vic Pallos, spokesman for the
