Seventh-graders spell out their support to classmate fighting cancer
By ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer on Sep 17, 2013, at 4:36 PM Updated on 9/17/13 at 6:27 PM
Students spell out the name Luis at Thoreau Demonstration Academy. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
Education
He will represent Oklahoma in the national Teacher of the Year competition in the spring of 2014.
Fourth-grader Caleb Mangesho has strong opinions about what the U.S. Constitution means to him.
If Luis Delarosa didn’t know he was missed at Thoreau Demonstration Academy before, his classmates literally spelled it out for him on Tuesday.
A message for Luis from
Tulsa World on
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The 12-year-old is hospitalized because of a recurrence of leukemia, but the faculty and students at this magnet middle school in south Tulsa wanted to send him a special message of hope and encouragement.
The entire seventh grade class gathered in the school parking lot in a drizzling rain to form a human chain of letters, L-U-I-S, while firefighters aloft in the bucket of a ladder truck captured their sentiment in photographs.
“I think he’s brave,” said classmate Hailyn Sandres. “He’s doing all his work to try to be prepared for when he comes back. I think it’s a great example for us.”
Delarosa finished sixth grade last year at MacArthur Elementary School, and counselor Rachel Adams said he was excited about being selected through a lottery-based admissions process to begin seventh grade at Thoreau.
“He had done all of his homework about this school and wanted to know all about our extended day and MicroSociety,” said Adams, referring to a program where students apply what they’re learning through classroom curriculum in a pretend city that is designed to be a microcosm of the real world.
Delarosa’s recurrence of a potentially life-threatening form of cancer has kept him out of school, preparing for a bone marrow transplant. He is completing coursework through a homebound instruction program, and teachers and students keep a physical reminder of his absence.
“His picture is on a piece of paper in all of our classrooms,” said one of his classmates, Madison Dill. “To me, compassion means being caring and considerate and everybody deserves to feel welcome and deserves a chance to have friends.”
Adams, the school counselor and Delarosa’s homebound instructor, said they want the boy and his family to know “he has a face and a space at Thoreau and that we are waiting for him with open arms and open hearts.”
Education
He will represent Oklahoma in the national Teacher of the Year competition in the spring of 2014.
Fourth-grader Caleb Mangesho has strong opinions about what the U.S. Constitution means to him.
