GLENDALE — Teachers and students Thursday remembered Toll Middle School student Meri Nalbandian as a girl who brought love and happiness to their classrooms.
Meri, 11, died Wednesday after she was hit by a motorist while walking in a crosswalk on her way to school, police said.
She had waited for traffic to stop before entering the red-brick crosswalk when she was hit and killed by a driver, who was looking the other direction and moving at about 10 mph, police said.
The sixth-grader was in her first year at Toll and had attended Columbus Elementary School since kindergarten.
Toll Principal Paula Nelson described Meri as a “bright-faced” girl who was tall for a sixth-grader.
“She was always smiling,” Nelson said. “She would come up and say, ‘Hey Dr. Nelson, I love Toll!’”
Although Meri was new to the school, she would participate in its range of lunch-time activities, attending a watermelon-eating contest, a water-balloon toss and scooter races, Nelson said.
Teachers at Toll were hurt deeply by the loss, Nelson said. Meri had made an impact on teachers and students in her short time at the school, she added.
“She was just really engaging in instruction and coming into her community as a student and doing really, really well in all of her classes,” Nelson said. “Our teachers were very proud of her.”
Second-grade Columbus teacher Anahit Arutyunyan remembered Meri as a source of life in her classroom.
“She had always her wonderful, beautiful smile on her face,” said Arutyunyan, adding that Meri went out of her way to greet her and other teachers.
“Every day when I was leaving school, she would call my name and come hug me,” Arutyunyan said.
Jennifer Romeo, a kindergarten teacher at Columbus, taught Meri and her younger sister, Nelly. She remembered Meri helping her sister line up with other kindergartners after recess.
“I just remember her in line asking, ‘Did Nelly do well today? Is there anything I can help her with?’” Romeo said.
Toll sixth-grader Vicken Tavitian, 10, was Meri’s classmate and remembered her presence in the classroom.
“She’d always smile, and she’d never see a negative side of anything,” Vicken said, adding that Meri didn’t like to hear other students being told they got a question wrong, and would ask teachers to be more positive.
Students and teachers put together a makeshift memorial at the crosswalk in front of Toll, with flowers, candles and notes made out to Meri.
During the day students also spent class time reflecting on the accident and writing notes on banners that were on display inside the school.
Remembering Meri, Arutyunyan, who played “Pomp and Circumstance” on the piano during Meri’s Columbus graduation ceremony, said she specifically remembered Meri’s sense of joy on that day.
“She was so confident with what she was at that point, and she was thinking so positively about her future,” Arutyunyan said. “That was a new page in her life.”
ZAIN SHAUK covers education. He may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at zain.shauk@latimes.com.
