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# Student deaths bring community together
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/student-deaths-bring-community-together/
- Published: 2001-12-18T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T22:32:37.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Pico, #archive-import

“But youth violence in our community affects all of us. This isn’t about one neighborhood, or social group or ethnic group,” said Oscar Delatorre, a Pico neighborhood activist. “If you look around, this group is a cross-section of our entire community.”

After the vigil reached Douglas Park, there was a brief ceremony and the city had organized Big Blue Buses to take marches back to St. Anne’s free of charge.

“This was a grassroots response — the immediate stimulus was a tragic student death at a party, but it’s not just that,” said McTaggart. “It’s a response to all the loss we have experienced in this school district over the past few years.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 18, 2001.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/121801.pdf?ref=smdp.com)