RESEDA : Students Honor Kennedy, Recall Their Classmate

Students at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies who gathered Monday under slate-gray skies to honor the life and death of John F. Kennedy found themselves with a more personal tragedy to mourn.

As a banner commemorating Kennedy’s life flapped in a gusty breeze, many students and teachers could not keep their minds off the tragic death of their classmate, 13-year-old Matthew Fischer, who was killed Friday when he was struck by a car in Woodland Hills on his way home from school. The eighth-grader, who was hit just after stepping off the school bus, would have been part of the presentation.

“The day Kennedy was killed . . . an age of innocence ended,” said teacher Don LaFraniere, as he introduced the 1 1/2-hour student presentation timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination. “We also lost somebody. Matthew Fischer was a good guy and he will be sorely missed.”

The several dozen eighth-graders who spent three weeks preparing for the Kennedy celebration decided to put it on as planned, despite Matthew’s sudden death. They dedicated their performance to his memory.

In the presentation, which portrayed six key events in Kennedy’s life, Matthew would have played the part of a Pakistani laborer working with the first Peace Corps volunteers.

Huddled together before the presentation, Matthew’s friends remembered him as a fun-loving teen-ager who kept everyone laughing.

“Our classroom will be a whole lot different without him,” said 13-year-old Melissa Kurland. “Someone will have to do the job of class clown.”

A team of crisis counselors visited the school to help students deal with the tragedy, and Principal Larry Rubin asked the crowd to write down their feelings about Fischer to bring to his funeral.

The funeral will be held today at Temple Solael in Woodland Hills at 11 a.m. Two buses will be available to pick up students from the school who want to attend.

Joan Mills, 59, who was charged with felony hit-and-run after leaving the scene of the crash, was released from Van Nuys Jail on bail and awaits arraignment this week.

Brian Marinoff, who said he was Matthew’s best friend, said all of the eighth-graders knew Fischer.

“Everyone liked him,” Brian said. “He liked to play a good joke.”

After presenting the history of Kennedy’s political life, eighth-graders Helen Avila and Sabrina Simmons read a message about Matthew to the crowd of about 500 students who sat on bleachers or on the cracked blacktop as the skies threatened rain.

“We will miss seeing him on campus, but his mischievous antics will be missed most of all,” Helen read. “Matthew will always remain a part of our lives because we all have a bit of Matthew in us.”