Leonard: "How old are you, Ms. Chew? You've gotta be the youngest teacher here."
Ms. Chew: "I'm 24."
Leonard: "You look like you're 18."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/16/BAMR1AL6D9.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/16/BASG1AKSI1.DTL
Bad news always comes when everything feels right. At least my Algebra class was more tame today, almost like they knew I needed a break.
I heard about Leonard first thing in the morning in the main office, listening to my principal talking to our security guard and another teacher about what happened. Leonard was one of our special education students who is in special day classes, meaning he rarely took classes with the general population. He left our school sometime near the end of last year. For this reason I couldn't place a face with the name so I kept moving.
Later on during an off period I saw some of my students in the hallway looking visibly upset. I tried to hunt down his picture in a yearbook to no avail.
We had an emergency staff meeting at lunch to talk about how we could support our students and how to handle this news.
Finally I walked by the makeshift memorial in the atrium. A large banner was draped across the lockers where students wrote their thoughts and memories for Leonard. On a small table was a picture of Leonard and some friends.
I remember him.
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