School Gets Help Coping With Death

A team of 16 crisis counselors reached out to parents, children and teachers Monday as the Roscoe Elementary School community struggled to cope with the tragic death of one of its own.

Principal Mary Kurzeka, visibly strained by emotions and endless questions since the accident Friday afternoon, repeatedly told worried listeners she does not know why an unattended 1,300-pound electric utility cart rolled down an incline and fatally crushed 7-year-old Steve Silva against a classroom wall.

Police said the second-grader was one of several children playing on or around the cart near the administration building after classes ended. The operator had left the cart just moments before and had taken the key with him, investigators said.

School officials said they had not yet determined how many children were in the play area or whether supervisors were present at the time of the accident. It occurred shortly before 3 p.m., when most teachers were participating in a weekly Friday staff meeting, Kurzeka said.

Officer Dwight Gillett of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division said he is waiting for counselors to deal with the emotional trauma of the accident before questioning witnesses and officials.

“The parents are still pretty much in shock,” Gillett said. “You send your kid off to school and something like this happens.”

Initial reports indicate that a parking brake was functioning properly but may have been released. “The sheer weight of the vehicle alone may have caused it to roll” backward down a 7% grade, Gillett said.

Several children tried to stop the vehicle as it began to roll, investigators said. Steve, described by family members as a playful, energetic youngster, ran behind the vehicle as it picked up speed, police said.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is conducting an independent investigation, said Supt. Roy Romer.

Sharon Swonger, who leads the district’s crisis team, said counselors have met several times with the boy’s parents, Enrique and Juana Silva, who have two other children in district schools. Funeral plans have not been announced.

Many parents dabbed at tears after meeting with counselors, seeking reassurance that their children are safe.

“My heart is with my kids,” said Nahla Almasri, who has two children at the school, including a 7-year-old daughter who was a classmate of the victim. Almasri said she and another neighbor help supervise children during lunchtime at the school, which has 1,200 students.

“There are not a lot of people there to watch all of the kids,” Almasri said.

“My head is spinning,” said Eugenia Hernandez, who had tears in her eyes after leaving a counseling session with several other parents held in the school auditorium. “How could it happen?”

Richard Christesen, a vice president of Taylor-Dunn, the Anaheim company that manufactured the cart, said he has never heard of another fatal accident involving such a cart. “It has multiple features for safety,” he said. The company, which has built the vehicles since 1949, will investigate the incident.

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Times librarian Ron Weaver contributed to this story.