‘I’m still kind of afraid of remembering what happened.’

The small bronze plaque on the school library wall goes almost unnoticed these days.

It is one of the few vestiges at Los Angeles’ 49th Street Elementary School of the day four years ago when gunfire erupted from a house across the street, turning the schoolyard into a nightmarish battlefield.

Scores of terrified children scattered in panic across the playground as a deranged sniper, who was to kill himself later, pumped round after round into the schoolyard from his second-story window.

Only an occasional visitor now asks about the library plaque, a memorial to Shala Eubanks, a 10-year-old who died in the shooting. A passer-by also died that day and a dozen people were wounded. “There doesn’t seem to be much curiosity about it anymore,” said Alice Nappier, who works in the library.

The passing years, coupled with an effort by the school to put the tragedy behind it, seem to have succeeded in relegating the shocking episode of Feb. 24, 1984, to history.

Most of the children who were on the playground that day have graduated, some teachers have moved on to other assignments, and the school is headed by a new principal.

Along with a few lingering memories, more positive legacies remain. In an effort to prevent similar tragedies, the Los Angeles Police Department worked with mental health agencies to more effectively deal with the potentially violent mentally ill. Officers in

the Police Department’s round-the-clock mental evaluation unit now identify, evaluate and refer mentally ill individuals to available services, said Detective Warren Haines.

The Los Angeles Unified School District created psychiatric trauma teams--mental health and medical specialists--trained to respond immediately to a school in crisis.

Most of the pupils “have probably fully recovered,” said Dr. William Arroyo of the county Mental Health Department, who helped coordinate follow-up services for the children. Still, “there’s no question that some of the children suffered the symptoms for a long time and, unfortunately, there are some who still do.”

Anna Gonzales, who was 11 at the time and was seriously wounded in the shooting, still becomes frightened whenever she hears a gunshot. “She gets very nervous and sometimes cries or runs and hides in her room,” said her mother, Esperanza.

“It still bothers me,” admitted Anna, who is 14 now and near the top of her class at a nearby junior high school. The girl, who was hospitalized for several months and underwent a series of operations to correct the damage from a bullet that destroyed a kidney, faces yet another round of corrective surgery, her mother said.

“I’m still kind of afraid of remembering what happened,” Anna said.