Paramount Scholarship to Honor Student Killed in Hit-and-Run

For the first time in its 36-year history, the Paramount Unified School District is dedicating a memorial scholarship in honor of one of the system’s 12,000 students.

Four previous memorial scholarships have been established in honor of longtime distinguished teachers. But Phillip Trujillo was special, friends, teachers and school officials say.

“He was a great leader and great student. He was a model for others,” Paramount High School Principal Maureen Sanders said.

Trujillo, 17, an honors student who graduated in June, was checking his car for a possible flat tire when he was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident more than three months ago.

Fred Huber, who has been spearheading an effort to locate the driver of the car, pledged $500 to the Trujillo Memorial Scholarship Fund. Huber’s son, Joseph, was a boyhood friend and high school classmate of the victim. A matching donation will be provided by Albert Gomer, owner of Gary’s Steel Co. of Long Beach. The victim’s father, Phil Trujillo, worked at Gary’s before moving to Albuquerque after his son’s death.

The scholarship will be awarded each year to an outstanding senior who has participated in the school’s peer counselor program, in which students help their peers deal with such problems as academic difficulties, drug abuse, alcoholism, pregnancy and academic difficulties.

Trujillo was an outstanding peer counselor, said Sandie Jacobs, therapist and substance abuse counselor who trained students in the program.

Jacobs recalled how Trujillo “spent weeks struggling in the library” with two football players who were failing algebra despite the efforts of teachers. With Trujillo’s help, the players earned passing grades, Jacobs said.

“Everybody misses Phil, his caring, his smile,” a tearful Jacobs said this week.

Fred Huber said he plans to meet with Jacobs and other school officials to discuss the scholarship fund and procedures for permitting public donations.

“Both students and teachers have said they want to make contributions. My wife has also talked about holding bake sales to raise funds,” he said.

Huber and Gomer previously had offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver of the car that struck young Trujillo. The reward was withdrawn this week.

Trujillo, Joseph Huber and three other teen-age friends were returing from Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park Aug. 12 when Trujillo was hit by the driver of a white Ford Taurus. Trujillo had pulled to the shoulder of the Artesia Freeway in Buena Park. The teen-agers were standing in front of Trujillo’s car when the driver of the Taurus collided with the stopped car. Trujillo was killed and Joseph Huber suffered minor injuries.

The California Highway Patrol sent out nearly 1,000 letters to automobile repair shops in Los Angeles and Orange counties seeking the hit-and run car, but no firm leads have developed.

Huber and Gomer said they are disappointed that the reward failed to generate any information, but decided that scholarship contributions would be more appropriate.

“I don’t think there is any more a reward can do. I think we can do more now to honor Phillip,” Huber said.

Gomer said, “The trail has grown cold. We would rather do something to contribute to the future of students like Phillip Trujillo.”