Two students and an adult from AMHS are walking to cross the street after the celebration of life ceremony held at AMHS on Sept. 30. This is the site where Loukas Angelo was fatally struck. Photo by Chetana Ramaiyer.

Sophomore Rebecca Noordeen was scrolling through her twitter on Wednesday Sept. 23, when she saw the hashtags #PrayforLoukas and #RIPLoukas from some of her friend’s posts who go to AMHS. Confused at first, she looked into the story to figure out what happened. After she discovered the news that a freshman at Archbishop Mitty High School, Loukas Angelo, was fatally struck by a car. Noordeen decided to spread the word about Angelo’s accident through Facebook. On Thursday Sept. 24, many MVHS students, including Noordeen, wore white to school to show their support for the Mitty community.

According to the San Jose police department, on Wednesday Sept. 23, Angelo was at John Mise Park across the street from AMHS. He was running back to the school from a pre-season basketball conditioning session at around 3:30 p.m., when a woman driving a silver Ford Focus hit him. Police Sgt. Enrique Garcia told an ABC 7 reporter that they did not suspect any drugs, alcohol or speeding issues for the driver. Angelo was immediately taken to the West Valley Medical Center in San Jose with critical injuries, where he was later determined to be in a coma and put on life support.

We may have lost a life today, but we gained an angel. Please keep praying for the Angelo family. #PrayForLoukas

— fresh sushi (@leiramada) September 24, 2015

A student from AMHS sent out a tweet with the hashtag #PrayForLoukas to raise awareness and support the family.

“We should still support the schools around us because if something happened to someone at our school,” Noorden said, “we’d want other people’s support as well.”

This isn’t the first time the community has reached out when a neighboring school dealt with a tragedy. The community of not just MVHS, but other schools in the area showed support after  the death of Ethan Wong to help the family and friends cope with the unfortunate bike accident. Students like Noordeen support these tragedies in order to help the community move on, even if they happen in different schools.

According to his friends and family, Loukas Angelo was many things: a writer, a basketball player and a sock enthusiast.

In a speech at a celebration of life ceremony hosted by AMHS for Angelo, AHMS freshman Joseph Vaughn described how he not only became Angelo’s friend, but his brother. The boys became close through their common interest of basketball, and after playing together for four years in middle school, they both dreamed of playing together throughout high school.

Soon after starting school at AMHS, the boys started going to the pre-season conditioning practices for the basketball team that they wanted so badly to play together on. It was after one of these practices that Angelo was hit by a car and fell into a critical condition.

After two days of waiting for Angelo to awake from his coma, on Friday evening, Angelo’s family pulled him off of life support. According to the Santa Clara Medical Examiner’s office, he was pronounced brain dead on that day. His family donated his organs on Sunday morning, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Three days later, a sea of white shirts and colorful socks covers the floors of AMHS as the community gathered to celebrate the life of Angelo in the Brother Fein Gymnasium. Angelo’s parents, Alison and Steve, watched from the front row as speeches were given by priests, his basketball coach, his old teachers and friends, including Vaughn. People from all over the community wore white clothing to keep Angelo in their prayers and colorful socks in memory of the “…art gallery on [Angelo’s] ankles.” The stuffy gym was crowded with people who knew Angelo and people who didn’t, with people who cried for Angelo and with people who simply prayed for him, with people who missed him.

Angelo’s friends, classmates, parents, teachers and teammates all knew him as a funny individual, a selfless player, a loyal friend and the boy with the bright socks.

Co-reported by Chetana Ramaiyer and Aanchal Garg.