Tragic deaths share one important lesson

February has been an emotionally charged month for the residents of Simi Valley.

Amid the heated debate over the city's new anti-peddling ordinance, three local teenagers- all boys, all with their lives in front of them- died in a threeweek period, beginning Feb. 2 with the brazen latenight shooting of 18-year-old Luis Torres in the middle of a residential neighborhood on Ashland Avenue.

Torres' death was followed by the loss of 13-year-old dirt-bike enthusiast Jake Lucas, who died doing what he loved amid the hills where he was born. At the time of his death, Jake was trespassing on private land often frequented by fellow riders.

Then last Sunday, 17-year-old Daniel Crane, another Simi native, was killed when the Chevy Blazer he was allegedly driving at a high rate of speed flipped over on Sycamore Avenue. Police said there was alcohol found in the SUV, although it's still unsure as to whether or not Crane was intoxicated. None of the vehicle's five passengers was believed to be wearing a seat belt.

While these tragedies are all very different, they do share one similarity: They've left people asking- Who's to blame?

In each case the argument can be made that poor decision-making contributed to the cause of death.

One Acorn reader criticized the paper for its coverage of Jake's death, saying that it failed to give enough attention to the fact that the boy was breaking the law at the time of his fatal accident.

"If you want to do the community a favor, other than writing an 'oh-woe-is-me piece,'" the reader's e-mail read, "then write one about how it is against the law and a nuisance to people living next to the hills."

The Acorn always strives to tell the whole story by answering the five W's- who, what, when, where and why. But our first priority as a community newspaper is to make sure these victims are remembered for who they are, not for the one adolescent lapse in judgment that led to their untimely death.

The lesson here is that no matter how hard we try, we can't protect our children from everything. What we can do is tell them how much we love them every day and enjoy every moment with them like it's the last.

Because, as the parents of Luis, Jake and Daniel learned, sometimes it can be. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all three families.