{"id":48968,"date":"2014-02-16T16:19:39","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T00:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=48968"},"modified":"2014-02-19T23:48:32","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T07:48:32","slug":"vigil-remembers-boy-hit-killed-by-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2014\/02\/16\/vigil-remembers-boy-hit-killed-by-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil remembers boy hit, killed by car"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Friends<\/a>
Friends and loved ones formed a circle and sang “Amazing Grace” at a vigil at Eastside High School Saturday to remember Gage Rossi. (Photos by LUIS MEZA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Dozens of students and teachers gathered in front of Eastside High School Saturday to remember Gage Rossi, the freshman hit and killed by a car as he crossed the street to catch his bus to school.<\/p>\n

\"Gage<\/a>
Gage was a confident teen who enjoyed clowning around, his friends said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gage was a confident, easygoing 14-year-old who loved to play the guitar and had many friends, those that knew him said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time when he came in class, he made a leap for a chair and he missed, and that was just his way of clowning around,\u201d said Gage\u2019s biology teacher Park Mickelson. \u201cAnother way that I remember him is when he brought in his guitar and played \u2018Smoke on the Water\u2019<\/em>, and that was just a fantastic, fantastic thing,\u201d Mickelson continued.<\/p>\n

The Lancaster collision that claimed Gage\u2019s life happened around 6:10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 14 on Avenue J, just east of 140th Street East.<\/p>\n

\"Gage<\/a>Gage was crossing Avenue J to get to the school bus, when he was struck by a car that was passing the school bus, according to a California Highway Patrol report. \u00a0Read more details of the collision here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was preventable,\u201d Gage\u2019s mother, Laura, said at Saturday\u2019s vigil.<\/p>\n

Laura said she had asked to have the bus rerouted so Gage wouldn’t have to cross the 55 mph street to get to his bus stop, but she was told there was no money in the budget.<\/p>\n

\"Gage<\/a>\u201cThere\u2019s just no reason he should have had to cross that street in the dark to get on that bus when there\u2019s plenty of room on the other side of the street\u2026 it\u2019s just ridiculous,\u201d Gage\u2019s father, Dean Rossi, said.<\/p>\n

Antelope Valley Schools Transportation Agency did not return calls for comment, but they released a statement saying they were conducting \u201ca thorough in-house investigation\u201d and would respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething about that needs to change, a law or a policy,\u201d Laura said. \u201cOther than that, my heart feels so big right now, because I didn\u2019t know my son was so popular and so loved by so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t pretend to be anything he wasn\u2019t, he just was himself, confident in himself, and because of that, I think he had so many friends,\u201d Gage\u2019s mother continued. \u201cIf people could just honor his memory by driving a little safer, a little slower… and keep your eyes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous related story<\/span>: Lancaster boy hit, killed crossing street<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Dozens of students and teachers gathered in front of Eastside High School Saturday to remember Gage Rossi, the freshman hit and killed by a car as he crossed the street to catch his bus to school. Gage was a confident, easygoing 14-year-old who loved to play the guitar and had many friends, those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}