During this same week 18 years ago, a 16-year-old Fairfax High School student died after he was shot in the chest by a student who used a backpack to bring a .357-magnum handgun into a classroom. It was the first time a student in the Los Angeles Unified School District had been killed in a classroom.
On Tuesday, the mother of the slain student watched in disbelief as television news crews reported that two Gardena High School students were shot after a classmate brought a handgun on campus in a backpack.
"All I could do was sit there and listen to it in disbelief," Mildred Hunt told The Times. "It was just like a video replay."
Her only son, Demetrius Rice, was shot through the heart on Jan. 21, 1993, and another student was wounded when the gun dropped out of the backpack and discharged during an early morning English class.
Hunt said she lobbied L.A. Unified officials for more stringent security measures -- including metal detectors at entryways -- to spare other families the pain and loss that she suffered. But she said Tuesday's shooting shows that the district has failed to make its campuses safe from gun violence.