Classmates Mourn Loss of a Friend, His Family

Sobbing, the young girls stood in a clutch inside the honors English classroom at Workman High School, remembering the boy they knew as a smiling, smart kid who was always ready to cheer his friends.

As one group of Anthony Garcia’s classmates calmed, another youngster would burst into tears.

And so grief intermingled with plans being made Monday to help pay for Anthony’s burial.

Anthony, 15, and six members of his family--including his mother and three little brothers--were killed last week in a gas explosion inside their motor home as the La Puente family traveled through northern Mexico. His father and badly burned sister, Rosy, survived.

The 14- and 15-year-olds who went to school with Anthony at Workman High in the City of Industry, many of whom had known him most of their lives, said Monday that they hope to stage a carwash and other fund-raisers this weekend.

The money will go to help pay for the Garcias’ funerals and the extensive medical care that Rosy Garcia requires.

Rosy, 14, survived the fiery accident with burns on 60% of her body. She was airlifted to the Sherman Oaks Burn Center last week, and remained in critical condition Monday after two operations to graft skin.

“Anthony would probably have wanted the burial here, with all his friends and family,” said classmate Renee Castanon, 14.

Members of the Garcia family had feared that they would have to bury the bodies in Mexico because of the costs of bringing the seven victims to Los Angeles. Through funds set up by radio station KFWB and Spanish-language television station KVEA Channel 52, money has been collected to bring the bodies to a Pico Rivera funeral home this week, relatives said.

The Workman students also want to do their part to honor Anthony and to say goodby. They pinned blue ribbons to their T-shirts and sweats, and the junior varsity football team, which Anthony played for, is wearing black armbands during summer practices.

But the students are becoming entangled in red tape that apparently prevents them from holding the carwash on school property, and finding a location is proving problematic.

Teacher Aileen Acosta-Mata said the efforts of the class are as much therapy as anything else.

“They’re taking it very hard,” Acosta-Mata said of the impact of Anthony’s death on her students. “This (the fund raising) is a positive way to handle grief.”

Normally, the school would provide counselors for the students to help them work through their sorrow and the emotions that accompany mourning. But school let out two days before Anthony was killed, and such counselors are unavailable during the summer session, Acosta-Mata said.

So it was therapeutic that Anthony Garcia’s schoolmates could pause to remember him Monday.

“When you were down, he was always there for you,” said Kathy Camacho, 14. “He always made you laugh. I never saw him down. He was always laughing.”

“Even when he was in trouble,” said Teresa Chavez, 14, smiling through her tears.

“He was really smart,” said Nellie Lopez, 14, listing the As in algebra, the honors English, the musical and athletic talents that marked Anthony’s scholastic career.

In addition to eulogizing Anthony, the students at Workman, too young to donate blood, have recruited their parents to give in Rosy Garcia’s name. She is only given a 40% chance of living; doctors have not told her that most of her family is dead.

In addition to her mother and four brothers--Anthony among them--Rosy’s aunt, Maritza Ocampo, and great-aunt Serafina Quintal, 85, who was returning to her native Yucatan Peninsula when the explosion occurred, died.