For the third time in less than a year, South High School in Torrance is mourning the death of a former student, killed in battle in the Middle East. KPCC's Susan Valot says Army Lieutenant Matt Ferrara, a 2001 South High grad, died Friday in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan.

Susan Valot: Twenty-four-year-old Matt Ferrara was a track star who got a near-perfect score on his SATs while at South High. He went on to West Point, where two of his brothers also attended. Ferrara's death in battle follows that of 2005 South High graduate, Corporal Joseph Anzack Junior, who was captured and killed in Baghdad. His body was found last May. Another South High grad, Army Specialist Micah Gifford, died last December.

Scott McDowell is the principal at South High. He says it's been hard.

Scott McDowell: Each death has hit us differently, because the boys have all been different ages. I'd have to say though that it's beginning to have a cumulative effect on us of – it kind of feels like a lot to handle, too much to handle.

Valot: McDowell says the deaths shatter the rosy outlook of the world that high school kids have.

McDwell: When you hear about someone serving in the military or someone is off at war, or even when you read about deaths of soldiers, it isn't real until it's someone you know. And we've now been hit with it three times.

Valot: McDowell says the campus will likely have a memorial service for Lieutenant Matt Ferrara. And the family plans to set up a scholarship fund in his name.