Students Left Numb by Killing : Crime: Police will file murder charges today against three gang members in the shooting of a Cleveland High girl. Her classmates plan a noon rally.

At Cleveland High School, students expressed pained resignation Wednesday rather than shock or anger over the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old classmate as she walked home after classes.

Authorities described Rocio Delgado as an innocent bystander who was shot to death Monday as she attempted to flee from a gang confrontation about six blocks from the Reseda school. Police, who have arrested three suspects, continued to search for several more.

“It’s just like, well, another shooting,” said Jessica Zamora, a 17-year-old senior. “I’m sad. It’s scary. But I’m getting used to it. . . . You just get numb after awhile.”

Other students said they felt helpless. Some said the only way to deal with their grief was to push their feelings aside.

Students planned a lunchtime rally today to remember Delgado and raise funds to help her family with the burial in Mexico. Colored ribbons will be sold.

“We are going to sell red, black and silver peace ribbons,” said Joshua Wiggins, a junior who had a class with Delgado. “These were the colors that she liked.”

Students and administrators described her as a quiet, studious girl, who worked hard to adapt to Los Angeles after immigrating from Mexico several years ago. She was known for her good humor, several students said.

Vice Principal Ernest Arguello said that since Delgado began attending Cleveland High three years ago, she progressed rapidly from English as a Second Language classes to mainstream academic courses.

“She was a good student,” Arguello said. “She couldn’t be a more innocent victim.”

It was the third violent incident in the last week, claiming the lives of two students, with five others wounded at or near San Fernando Valley high schools.

School police were very visible at the campus Wednesday. Security throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District has been tightened since the fatal shooting of student Demetrius Rice on Jan. 21 at Fairfax High School. At Cleveland, all students are required to show proof of enrollment to be admitted to enclosed areas of the campus.

Authorities said they fear there is little they can do to stop shootings that occur on city streets next to the campus. Many students walk home each day on the same stretch of Vanalden Avenue that Delgado used, said Detective Tom Broad, because it is the shortest way from the high school to a gated apartment complex to the north.

“This violence didn’t start out on campus and isn’t connected to the campus,” Broad said. The suspects are not students, he said.

Police said they plan to ask the Los Angeles district attorney’s office today to file murder charges against three gang members. Aureliano Vasquez, 18, of Reseda and two Northridge boys, ages 16 and 17, are being held without bail, Broad said. Police are still seeking two or three other suspects, including the youth they believe pulled the trigger.

The gang confrontation occurred as the youths were cruising around the school when they saw a member of a rival group, Broad said.

The youths in the car challenged Gerardo Ruiz, 15, as he walked home from school. They jumped out of the car and began beating him. When Gerardo’s friend, Alejandro Rivera, approached, one of the assailants opened fire with a handgun, Broad said.

Struck were Rivera, a 16-year-old from Northridge who was wounded; Delgado, and her friend Aidee Mejia, 17, of Northridge, who were walking across the street together. Both Mejia and Rivera have been released from hospitals after treatment.

Judy Campos, 39, was fixing dinner in the kitchen of her home at Napa Street and Vanalden when she heard gunshots. She looked out to see a bleeding Delgado in her front yard.

“I couldn’t believe this happened right in front of my eyes,” said Campos, who reluctantly enrolled her 15-year-old daughter at Cleveland High School on Wednesday.

“Really, nowhere is safe anymore,” said Campos, who recently moved from Canoga Park. “The only thing a parent can do is drop your kids off right at the classroom door and pick them up at the same place when it’s over.”

“Even that wouldn’t help if there’s shooting,” Campos said.