Finding Strength in Their Faith

The sanctuary of Eagle Rock Baptist Church is where the families of Westminster Academy Christian Day School typically meet for chapel prayers, for the school’s “Patriotic Day” celebration, for eighth-grade graduation.

But Thursday morning, hundreds of parents, students and young alumni quietly gathered in the dimly lighted church to pray and sing from their hardback hymnals for the wounded among them--the 13 students and teachers taken to the hospital after being struck Wednesday by a gray Mercedes in a parking lot accident during after-school pickup.

In an instant, bodies were pinned beneath a car as children screamed and adults ran to the rescue. A team of visiting basketball players from Arcadia Christian School and several adults lifted the car off the victims while others pulled them out.

“As soon as I saw the bodies, I was sure there were fatalities around there somewhere,” Principal David Thibault told the 500 gathered in the chapel. “But God’s protection has never been made more clear to me in my life.”

Only four students and the music teacher from this Christian school remained hospitalized Thursday. Teacher Jan Hanson, who was pinned beneath the car, suffered three fractured ribs, a shattered pelvis and a severe cut on her leg and is being treated at County-USC Medical Center. Two boys are being treated at Childrens Hospital. A 6-year-old underwent surgery Thursday to repair two broken femurs. A 9-year-old is in serious condition, suffering from a badly bruised left lung and a collapsed right lung, along with several broken ribs.

Two other children, a 10-year-old boy with a fractured left leg and an 8-year-old boy in fair condition with unspecified injuries, are being treated at County-USC.

Others were recovering at home from scrapes, bruises and fractures.

“We can rejoice in God’s grace that none of them are in critical condition and none of them are expected to suffer long term,” Thibault said.

The driver of the 1978 Mercedes, Kae Hak In, 65, of Glendale was picking up her granddaughter, a second-grader, about 3 p.m. when she accelerated into the crowd, police said. She probably will not be cited, said Sgt. John Pasquariello, a police spokesman.

“Our investigation has found no indication there was any criminal intent on her part,” Pasquariello said. “But we have not determined what caused the accident.”

Thibault and the crowd prayed for the driver. “What happened was an accident, it was not the direct result of the sin of the driver,” the principal said.

Many parents and students arriving at the Colorado Boulevard campus Thursday morning were overcome with emotion, crying and hugging each other, as they met with teachers and friends.

“I’m so scared, I’m so scared,” said one mother, crying into the shoulder of first-grade teacher Jan Quintelier. “I just love you so much.”

This is a school of modest cinder-block buildings but strong faith. Thursday’s gathering was called “a service of rejoicing” because no lives were lost, and Thibault sounded as much like a pastor as a principal.

“We have seen the power of God who does things we do not understand,” Thibault said. “But instead of asking why, we need to ask, what results can come even in the midst of trouble?”

He joked that the seventh-graders didn’t have to take their feudalism test Thursday. Then, more seriously, he began building on a theme:

“In the midst of our heartache, in the midst of our trouble, we find the strength of others,” he said, slipping into prayer.

“Lord, we don’t like trouble and wish it didn’t occur, but we can say you are a great God and you know what is best.”

This is just the kind of religious teaching that envelops every classroom and lesson at Westminster Academy, whose mission includes leading “pupils to receive Christ as Savior and Lord.”

A stable faculty of 22 teaches 220 students from kindergarten through eighth grade, leaning heavily on Bible teachings.

Founded in 1953, Westminster teaches creationism, not Darwinism, and in the school’s early years it had to undertake a wide search to find a science textbook in sync with those beliefs. Thanks to the popularity of fundamentalist Christian schools and home-schooling among Christians, plenty of texts were found, said school board Vice President Laurel Martin.

The school was started by parents who attended Calvary Presbyterian Church in Glendale and felt that public schools were not teaching Christian values. Nearly 50 years later, parents send their children to Westminster for the same reason.

“We have the Bible as the foundation for teaching our children in this school,” said Edwin Quiles, 43, who has sent his three children to Westminster. “We agree with the school’s philosophy of teaching respect for authority and respect for the hierarchy of the family.”

Westminster is not a tony school for wealthy families. Tuition, about $3,500 a year with after-school care available for $2 an hour, is well below most independent schools’ price tags, and it does not cover the cost of educating the students.

The school makes up the difference by counting pennies and holding fund-raisers throughout the year.

The community favorite is the annual nut sale--thousands of pounds of almonds, pistachios and walnuts. Last year, playground equipment was bought with the proceeds.

Most of the families today are Asian or Latino and many of the parents are immigrants.

While many private schools refuse to disclose their test scores to outsiders, Westminster proudly shared its students’ performance.

On the Stanford 9 test, administered in California public schools and other schools around the country, Westminster students typically score better than about 75% of other students who took the test.

While this school community is shaken by the accident, its members confronted the tragedy in the way they do most things at Westminster: turning to the word of God, reading the 46th Psalm to open their service:

“God is our refuge and our strength.... Be still and know that God is with us ... “

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Times staff writer Kenneth Reich contributed to this report.