TOO MANY SHRINE SITES? SCHOOLS WONDER ABOUT SENSITIVITY.

Byline: Sue Doyle Staff writer

CASTAIC - Not far from the swings and basketball hoops where kids run and play at recess sits an old bench in memory of a fellow student who died a decade ago.

At other schools, gardens, trees and plaques decorate the playground - tributes to classmates and teachers who've died from diseases, car accidents and gunshots.

As time goes on, these memorials are starting to add up on local campuses. Now some schools are concerned that their sites are looking somewhat morbid, somewhat gloomy and that the scenes are affecting students.

"We have a number of memorials, and you think this is sad if every corner you're turning, you're seeing a bench," said Beverly Silsbee, Castaic Union School District superintendent. "It's a very sensitive issue."

Memorials for loved ones at one time were deemed private affairs, reserved solely for families who grieved behind closed doors. But over time they've grown more overt, with flowers and candles decorating roadside shrines, memorials in front of public buildings and eulogies even written on the backs of cars.

Schools, over time, have also found themselves playing host to memorials. And now some school systems are realizing they need to back off the shrines and find a delicate balance between honoring the dead and keeping the school sites looking lively.

When plans for a memorial designed for Castaic Elementary School with three benches and a concrete slab was presented Monday to the school board in honor of one student who died of cancer, members decided to pare it down.

The board also agreed that the memorial should be for all children at the school who have died or will meet their fate at early ages, instead of building memorials each time.

"It will eventually be a bench reading area with a tree," said David Huffaker, board president. "Sadly we anticipate other kids being killed and they might want a memorial for each. It feels better to have a memorial for all kinds of children."

What also starts off as an idea from a family ends up falling under care of the schools. The upkeep of the benches, plants and rose bushes becomes the responsibility of the school sites to keep them polished and manicured.

That issue has sparked many discussions for the Saugus Union School District school board, said member Judy Umeck.

The school district has a garden at Santa Clarita School in memory of Paul Youhanian who was shot to death in 1996 at age 11 while riding with his mother in her minivan.

A library at Highlands School is named after Jordan Koscielny, a boy who died of leukemia at age 9. Another school has a memorial for an eighth-grade student who was hit by a car while jogging and then died.

Umeck said schools in the district haven't hit their limit yet with student or teacher memorials but that could change as the area develops and more families move in.

For now, schools are handling the memorials but Umeck said there should be consideration to their designs and to other students who see them every day, especially siblings of the deceased.

"We recognize that there are young children who are coming to the school and seeing it on a daily basis," she said.

Not every person connected to a school system has a memorial. The idea typically comes from family or co-workers of the deceased.

And locally, the type of tribute depends on the age of the person who died.

Students who died during their senior year while attending the William S. Hart Union High School District are mentioned during graduation ceremonies, with family members accepting their diplomas., said Cathy Ritz, director of development for the community college's foundation.

"It's the gift that keeps on giving," Ritz said. "It's a pretty powerful gift to memorialize someone."