FULLERTON — More than 800 people crowded into the Sunny Hills High School gymnasium Wednesday night seeking answers to questions that have haunted them since the arrest of five students there for the brutal slaying of Stuart A. Tay.
The emotional crowd, still reeling from the New Year's Eve killing of the Foothill High School honor student, included students and parents who worried aloud about safety, the presence of gangs and the availability of drugs and weapons on campus.
"I think good human values have been lost in this day of Nintendo, electronics and computers," said Herm San Luis, whose 15-year-old son attends Sunny Hills. "You don't know if you have a time bomb ticking at home. I'm here to know what the school is going to do."
Hilda Sugarman, president of the school's Parents, Teachers and Students Assn., said the killing and arrests at Sunny Hills continue to rock the community.
"The overwhelming response showed that people in the community are concerned," Sugarman said, referring to large turnout. "There is great concern. The five students arrested was something that shocked our entire population."
Authorities allege that students Robert Chien-Nan Chan, 18, Charles Choe, 17, Kirn Young Kim, 16, Mun Bong Kang, 17, and Abraham Acosta, 16, participated in the killing of Tay when a scheme to rob an Anaheim man of computer components went bad.
Investigators said that Tay was lured to Acosta's house in Buena Park on New Year's Eve on the pretense that he would be able to buy a handgun. But as part of a plan that was allegedly devised about two weeks in advance of the meeting, Tay was beaten with baseball bats and a sledgehammer and then buried in a shallow grave. Police estimated that Tay was struck 13 times in the head.
Responding to the concerns of students and parents, Fullerton Unified School District officials organized the forum that included Fullerton police, educators and psychologists. The district also provided a Korean translator. There is a significant Korean population in Fullerton, and three of the five suspects held in the murder are Korean-Americans.
Attendance was so great that the program was moved from the smaller performing arts center on campus to the school gymnasium.
By the time the program had started, the gymnasium bleachers were packed. Many stood in lines that snaked behind two microphones placed on the gym floor, waiting for a chance to speak. Once they were given the floor, their voices cracked with emotion and their words were often followed by thunderous applause.
