ANTIDOTE SOUGHT FOR TERROR STUDENTS GATHER TO REFLECT UPON NEED FOR PEACE.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

LANCASTER - More than 5,000 high-school and middle-school students formed a giant peace symbol Friday on a field at Antelope Valley College, in their 3rd annual observance of Increase the Peace Day.

A sea of students wearing red, white and blue Increase the Peace T-shirts filled the football field bleachers. They stood up, clapped in rhythm and sang along to ``Lean on Me,'' sung by Challenger Middle School students.

``If you want to fight violence, if you want to stop school terrorism, it starts right here,'' Littlerock High School teacher Bruce Galler told the teen-agers. It was Galler's pupils who had organized the first Peace Day event, when he taught at Challenger Middle School in Lake Los Angeles.

Among the event's speakers this year were the daughter and the sister-in-law of a teacher shot to death April 18, 1999, at Columbine; a New York paramedic who narrowly survived the World Trade Center attack; and the daughter of a woman killed in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

The speeches were halted briefly three times when organizers scolded boisterous students who were talking loudly in the stands. Sheriff's deputies eventually escorted a handful of teens out of the gathering.

``It can happen here,'' said Melody Smith, sister-in-law of Columbine teacher Dave Sanders, after an interruption. ``The only difference is you're here to increase the peace. Dave Sanders saved 300 children that day. One person can make a difference.''

Sanders' daughter, Coni Sanders-Adams, encouraged the students to be kind to others. She could not comprehend why Columbine's two teen gunmen would commit such a horrific act, she said.

``If somebody could have shown them a little bit of kindness my daddy would be here today,'' said Sanders-Adams ``Kindness could have saved many lives. The truth stands; it all begins with you.''

Shelly Thompson, who represented the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, said her mother had worked at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building for only three months when it was destroyed by a truck bomb.

Her mother's body was the last recovered from the ruins, 41 days after the explosion.

Thompson learned of the bombing from her boyfriend, who telephoned her frantically to say he thought her mother's office had been bombed. Thompson's brother went to the office and looked for their mother's car. He found it two blocks away, where the force of the explosion had thrown it against a wall.

The family went to a church near the federal building that had been set up to receive relatives of the workers.

``It was so powerful to see everybody in the same room looking for their loved ones,'' said Thompson.

She told the teen-age audience: ``The bomber of Oklahoma City wanted to take us down but we're not going to let him. I am so proud of my mother, that she did such a wonderful job raising me, and I'm blessed (that I had) 26 years with her.''

She added: ``Life is too short to be wasted on anger or not getting along. I hope today that you take something back from hearing the stories ... . Stand together and stop violence.''

After the ceremony, Galler said he believed organizing the annual event had been beneficial.

``There seems to be a small core of students who are developing leadership skills and hopefully we could expand on that core to improve the climate in the area, but we have a lot of work to do,'' said Galler. ``Hopefully, the program will continue to expand. We need to continue to reach out with other groups that are doing the same thing - other school districts, community leaders - and look for a grant or something to fund it.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Stephen Ceraulo of the New York City Fire Department recounts his Sept. 11 experiences to assembled students during the Increase the Peace Day event held Friday. At left, several students are told to leave after a disturbance.

(3) Shelly Thompson talks about her mother who was killed in the bombing of Oklahoma City's federal building in 1995.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News