500 Attend Funeral of Teen Killed in Fight

CANOGA PARK — Shoulder to shoulder the boys in the Chatsworth Chiefs jerseys sat, wiping their eyes. The church seemed a strange place to be for members of the pee-wee football team.

It was only a few weekends ago that their buddy Stephan Corson thundered down the field, a football squeezed between his hands.

Now he lay in front of them in a cream-colored suit, white roses on his chest, impossibly silent.

“He wanted to go pro,” said teammate Desean Jackson, 13.

“He was friends with everybody,” said another boy, Gary Kreutz.

Stephan Corson’s life shouldn’t have ended so soon and it shouldn’t have ended in a fight, was the message of his funeral Tuesday evening. The eighth-grader who was killed in a schoolyard scrap Friday in Palmdale was a boy known for his sweetness and love of sports, a desire to stay out of trouble and a fondness for spicy barbecue Doritos.

His friends remembered him as a funny guy, always imitating comedians, and a Nintendo addict. His coaches said he was always one of the fastest kids on the field and good at whatever he tried--football, baseball, kickball, whatever.

Many of the boys he played sports with in the San Fernando Valley quietly filed into the First Baptist Church of Canoga Park wearing their uniforms as a sign of respect.

Stephan, born in Hollywood, grew up in Winnetka and moved to Palmdale with his mother, Mary, three weeks ago. His family said he was one of those kids who would break up fights, not start them.

“That fight was probably his first,” said his brother Jay, 26.

His funeral, attended by about 500 people, was enveloped in sadness. Before the service started, young girls stood in front of photo collages of the 13-year-old Stephan, bawling and holding each other up.

His two brothers, Jay and Scott, dressed in black pants, black jackets and black shirts, couldn’t even look at the pictures. “In every one he’s smiling,” said Scott, 31, an Army technician based in Germany.

“His smile--not seeing it anymore--how am I going to deal with that?”

His family and their supporters were also upset about how the fighting incident has been handled.

Stephan, who was African American, died after a fistfight with a white eighth-grade student at Juniper Intermediate School in Palmdale on Friday afternoon.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokeswoman said Stephan apparently died after being struck and falling, hitting his head on pavement. Palmdale school Supt. Nancy Smith said race was not a factor in the fight and that officials still don’t know how it started.

Members of the Corson family, however, question why the white student has not been expelled or taken into custody in connection with the case.

Sheriff’s Department officials said they have questioned the boy and are continuing to investigate the death. He has been suspended until Nov. 30 and may face expulsion pending the results of the investigation.

During the service Tuesday night, after Stephan’s favorite R&B; song, “Nice and Slow,” was played, many of his teammates and coaches stepped up to the microphone to talk about his fine manners and athletic skills.

Alex Vassil, a former Little League coach, shared a memory of Stephan smacking his first homer over the left field fence.

“Stephan came running across home plate, yelling, ‘Coach, I did it! I did it!’ ” Vassil told the mourners.

“Yes, Stephan, you did do it,” Vassil said. “And you’ve done so much more in your shortened life than you’ll ever know.”