Plenty of tears at Seminole High

Silence and tears.

That was the order of the day at Seminole High School as students walked the hallways and attended classes for the first time since three of their classmates were killed in a fiery car crash Friday night.

A fourth student who died attended Largo High School and a fifth student was injured; he was released from Bayfront Medical Center Monday.

"It was hard," said Bobby Segarra, 17, a junior as he got into a car in the school's parking lot this afternoon. "Everybody's crying."

A candlelight memorial will be held Wednesday night at Seminole High School's football stadium from 8:30-9:30 p.m., said Andrea Zahn, spokeswoman for the school district. A memorial at Largo High School was tentatively scheduled toward the end of the school day Wednesday, she said.

Pinellas County school administrators had crisis teams on hand at both schools and hundreds sought grief counseling, she said.

Killed in the late Friday wreck were Keith MacCollum, 17, Joseph Ruzecki, 16, Nathan Richardson, 15, and LeShawn Smith, 16. Corey Lepore, 17, was injured and was released Monday from Bayfront Medical Center. He went Monday afternoon to the makeshift memorial at the scene of the wreck but did not speak to the media.

All of the students went to Seminole except for Smith, who was a junior at Largo High.

Seminole students drove to school Monday morning in cars marked with "R.I.P." More students wore white T-shirts with the names of four teenagers killed in the crash. Many students wore black and white in memoriam, students said.

One of the students who took advantage of the grief counselors was Rebecca Carey, 15, who was good friends with Richardson.

"I was talking to counselors for an hour, the whole third period," she said as she sat in the back seat of a car that was about to depart after its occupants paid a visit to a burgeoning roadside memorial to the students.

Others were so distraught they had to leave school.

"Some kids they made leave because they were too upset. They said to go," said Caitlin Cooke, 17, as she sat in the grass near the tree where a Lexus driven by Ruzecki crashed and then exploded into flames.

Some members of the crew from the City of Seminole Fire Rescue Department drove to the growing memorial with a memorial of their own. It said firefighters with the city offered their condolences and then had a piece of advice: "Drive Safely."

"This is going to be etched in these kids' memories a long time," said District Chief Rick Koda. "Hopefully something positive will come out of it."

"They were going real fast," said Koda, who was on duty when the car wrecked. ""It hit hard."

The Florida Highway Patrol said Ruzecki was driving a Lexus IS300 west on 86th Avenue North just after 11 p.m., when he tried to pass a car trying to make a left turn. After hitting the car, the Lexus hit a large tree on the south shoulder of 86th Avenue North. Ruzecki, the only one in the car wearing a seat belt, was still in the Lexus when it caught fire. The four passengers were thrown from the car.

Dispatchers were inundated with 911 calls moments after the crash.

One dispatcher tried to calm down a frantic caller by telling him to take a deep breath, then assured him that help was on the way.

"It's completely destroyed!" the caller said in the 911 call released today by the sheriff's office. "It exploded! Oh, my god!"

A woman told a different dispatcher that she was sitting in her living room when she heard the crash. She shouted at her children to get back inside the house as she described the scene.

"Get in here!" The woman yelled as her children ran outside. "I have kids to worry about, I'm sorry." Then the woman said, "There's a fire! There's a fire!"

The principal and other school administrators rushed to the scene Friday night after receiving confirmation of the crash. Weller opened up the school's auditorium and grief counselors spent Saturday talking to parents and students.

"Everything in their lives has been turned upside down," he said Sunday.

Keith MacCollum's father, Stuart, said his son had a 4.2 GPA, was expected to start on the vasity basketball team next year as a senior and hoped to attend the University of Central Florida, where his brother had gone. He wanted to become an attorney, he said.

"He always had a smile and was friends to everybody,'' Stuart MacCollum said.

A wake will be held Moe's Funeral Home in Seminole from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday so his friends will be able to attend the candelight vigil later that day. The funeral will be at Indian Rocks Baptist Church later in the week.

Meanwhile a memorial scholarship is being set up in Keith's name. Anyone interested in donating to the Keith MacCollum Memorial Scholarship Fund can do so by mailing contributions to the fund at the Cornerstone Community Bank, 7800 Seminole Blvd., Seminole, FL 33776.