Living Trees Memorialize Sepulveda Students Who Died

About 200 Sepulveda Junior High School students Friday planted sycamore saplings in a campus garden in memory of two classmates with disparate life styles--an honor student who died in a bizarre playground accident and a gang member who was stabbed to death.

Although the two boys did not know each other at the school, which has more than 2,000 students, their friends decided that the trees will be a “beautiful reminder” of Michael Ahn and Manuel Pena, said Jill Preston, a student leader.

Ahn, 13, of Granada Hills, a gifted student, died April 3 after he was seriously injured on campus, school officials said.

Ahn and another student slammed into each other while running across the schoolyard. Ahn then fell down several stairs and struck his head. He died about a week later in a hospital. The other boy was not seriously injured.

“This horrendous accident was truly a freak,” said Karen Klasky, 15, Ahn’s friend. “Every time we think of Michael, we feel the need to grieve for him one more time. I wish he knew the place that he has in my heart.”

Ahn’s teachers and friends described him as cheerful youth with a big smile they will never forget.

Stabbed in Argument

Pena, 13, of Panorama City, died in a fight the night of March 25 outside a Langdon Avenue apartment building. He was an “admitted gang member” who was stabbed in an argument, police said. No one was charged in the stabbing, which authorities determined was an act of self-defense.

“Today we will remember Manuel with beauty instead of strife,” said Preston, 15.

“This is the first time a friend of mine has died,” said Manuel Sanchez, Pena’s friend. “I didn’t know I would feel this sad.”

Hundreds of people attended Ahn’s funeral and burial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. A reception was held at the Valley Korean United Methodist Church. A Rosary was recited for Pena in a San Fernando chapel. He was buried in Mexicali, Mexico.

“You can’t say that one child was better than the other; it’s just that they lived two different life styles,” said teacher Mary McCannes.

While several students silently planted the trees, youths in the crowd could be heard whispering the same words, in English for Ahn and Spanish for Pena .

“Poor Michael; pobrecito Manuel .”