A frigid wind caused a multitude of candles to sputter out Wednesday night at French Field.<\/p>\n
But the group that gathered at Kent-Meridian High School\u2019s football stands just hunkered closer together, sharing flames from other, still-lit candles to ensure each of their comrades had a flame to call their own.<\/p>\n
In a lot of ways, that spirit of compassion and unity mirrored the reason why roughly 500 people were at the field in the first place.<\/p>\n
They were there to help each other bear witness to the passing of a much-loved K-M student.<\/p>\n
He hadn\u2019t been at K-M long, but it was obvious the late Dorian Tursic, 18, had become an integral part of the K-M family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough Dorian may be gone, he\u2019ll be forever in my heart. I love you, Dorian,\u201d said a teenager to the group, one of many who got up and spoke at the student-organized candlelight vigil.<\/p>\n
Tursic, a straight-A student and varsity basketball player, died early Sunday morning, when the 2004 Impala he was driving crashed into a tree in the 23800 block of 64th Avenue South in Kent. Three other K-M students in the car survived, although all were initially taken for treatment of the serious injuries they sustained in the crash. (See related story, page 6.)<\/p>\n
Tursic, however, died at the scene.<\/p>\n
At Wednesday\u2019s vigil, it became obvious just how many lives the senior student had touched, in his first year at K-M, where he\u2019d transferred from Tyee High School at SeaTac.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us are going to forget what he did for us,\u201d admonished another teen, one of Tursic\u2019s many friends who got up to speak at the vigil, his voice breaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I knew was that he was an awesome friend. When you came to him with a problem, he was there,\u201d another student shared with the group.<\/p>\n
If there was a recurring theme in what speakers shared that night, it was that Tursic was that rare kind of person who could find something in common with nearly anyone. It didn\u2019t matter if they were in the academic track, shooting hoops, or just happy to be making it through school somehow.<\/p>\n
And boy, was the kid upbeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t one day Dorian was sad, and if he was, you didn\u2019t know it,\u201d another boy told the group, as candle flames continued to flicker. \u201cHe was a friend to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then sang a song to Dorian, accompanied by piped-in background music.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I hear are raindrops falling on the roof,\u201d he sang, noting, \u201cI\u2019m officially missing you.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when his voice faltered as he choked back tears, two of his female friends, who had been standing with him, kept singing through additional stanzas of the song. Their voices, carried on the cold night air, generated warm applause from the audience.<\/p>\n
Other students reminded the audience of what Dorian\u2019s passing meant for their future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to take every day and tell the people you love, that you love them,\u201d one teenage boy said. \u201cYou might not get a second chance. I just want to say, \u2018I love you, Dorian.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A number of adults also spoke, including one man who noted that while he didn\u2019t know Dorian, he knew the teen\u2019s short life could serve as a wake-up call to others.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not live your life saying \u2018I coulda, woulda, shoulda,\u2019\u201d the man told the teens. \u201cLive your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another adult, a woman referring to herself as Nani, who said she\u2019d known Dorian since he was in second grade, reminded the teens they needed to be adamant about making good choices, and showing good judgement.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t make mistakes that are going to take you out,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of us are going to deal with this for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
K-M Principal Wade Barringer, who also spoke at Wednesday\u2019s vigil, said Thursday the vigil was one of a number of ways K-M has been working to help students with their grief.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike all of the other events we\u2019re doing for Dorian, the purpose was to honor him in all the different ways that his friends wanted to honor him,\u201d Barringer said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very accepting of everything the kids want to do. Every little bit enables the kids to process this a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other activities this week at K-M included a moment of silence Monday, putting Dorian\u2019s picture on front page of the K-M Web site, sending a letter home to families, putting an announcement on the school reader board and letting students leave items in memory of Dorian near the school flag pole.<\/p>\n
Memorial services for Tursic at Marlatt\u2019s Funeral Home in Kent Thursday were standing room only, with attendees – the majority of them young people – flowing outside the building.<\/p>\n
Barringer also said that while counselors were available, all of K-M\u2019s staff were available to talk with students.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe you\u2019re the one person that student has that connection with,\u201d Barringer said, of what he told his staff. \u201cWe\u2019re all in this together – for the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A frigid wind caused a multitude of candles to sputter out Wednesday night at French Field.
\nBut the group that gathered at Kent-Meridian High School\u2019s football stands just hunkered closer together, sharing flames from other, still-lit candles to ensure each of their comrades had a flame to call their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":4937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4936"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}