I just read this article about the Kenmore West teacher who was killed in an accident. I was really touched until I got to the end and found out that the school organized a balloon release in memoriam. I can't believe the ignorance of such actions and for this to be done as an official act by a school. The article ends with "When a bagpipe player finished the last strains of “Amazing Grace,†the balloons were let loose. Heads turned to watch them dance like free spirits toward the heavens." They are balloons, not spirits and they don't go to the heavens, they go to our water ways and imperil our struggling wildlife and make everything ugly. They get entangled in trees and rocks and there they sit for who knows how long until they photo-degrade and break into smaller pieces which get eaten by plankton and thus passed on up the food chain. Death is sad but adding more death and destruction makes it even sadder.
It is really sad what happened. I really like the beginning of the article where the girl shares her experience about his encouragement. What a huge loss for the school.
School grieves loss of teacher
After football victory, Kenmore West says goodbye, with love
By Matthew Spina
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Published:
September 19, 2010, 12:00 AM
Laura Doxbeck was an insecure sophomore, certain there was no place for her at the Tinsel Ball, Kenmore West High School’s holiday season gala.
She would know no one. She would have no one to talk to. She would stick out like a sore thumb. But she went.
“Mr. Dugan talked me into it,†she said Saturday, almost two years later.
“He said that no matter who you know, you will always meet people. Because, no matter what, people are going to be friendly. Everybody’s friendly. Nobody’s mean. You just have to give them a chance.â€
He encouraged her to buy a nice dress—the calming color of green so that if she became nervous she could look at herself and feel at ease. He told her she would look beautiful and would have a great time.
Apparently, she did. She posted a picture of herself at the Tinsel Ball on her Facebook page. And the memory of it all brought a smile to her face on an otherwise sad day.
“That was Mr. Dugan’s whole perspective,†she said. “He was so intelligent, with so much insight into everybody’s life, and with so much intuition that it just blew me away.â€
Kenmore West’s football team played Lockport High on Saturday and thrilled the huge home crowd with a come-from-behind victory — 14-13—on the last drive of the game.
The teams congratulated each
other and then several hundred people fell silent.
You could hear only the wind as the players, cheerleaders and about 200 more people assembled at midfield. Balloons in the school colors of blue and white were handed out.
The Kenmore West community was gathering to remember Brian C. Dugan, its “beloved colleague and friend,†as the school superintendent called him.
Dugan, an English teacher at the school since 1995, active over the years in coaching football and basketball, a husband and father to boys ages 7 and 8, and the teacher most likely to pull any young student out of a funk, was hit by a car and killed while jogging Wednesday on Sheridan Drive.
He was just 37.
“He loved kids. He loved being with kids. And he loved the kids he taught,†said Sam Drago, who taught with Dugan in the English department. “Whether in the classroom, or on this football field, he taught by example. He taught with love. With compassion. With honesty. And with sincerity. It’s for all those reasons that he’s a hero to so many kids.â€
He taught students in the ninth and 10th grades, young teenagers sprinting toward adulthood and fretting about their place among their peers. Dugan’s students said he taught them to relax and to have a laugh or two while learning.
He would throw a few outlandish choices into his multiple-choice tests. He’d read Shakespeare with his best British accent.
“He taught us to laugh, to make things a joke. Not everything was so serious. He made it OK,†said Haley Lewandowski, now a senior.
When a bagpipe player finished the last strains of “Amazing Grace,†the balloons were let loose. Heads turned to watch them dance like free spirits toward the heavens.
Students will be dismissed early Monday to allow them to attend the Mass of Christian Burial for Dugan, to be offered at 11:30 a. m. in St. Amelia Catholic Church, 2999 Eggert Road, Town of Tonawanda. The Brian C. Dugan Children’s Education Fund—PO Box 2, Buffalo, NY 14223—has been set up for his children.
District Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro handed a bouquet of flowers — again in blue and white — to Dugan’s widow, Ann Marie. Minutes earlier he had urged everyone to live the way Dugan had lived, with a sense of purpose, passion and heartfelt love to those around him.
Some students were asked later how Dugan had changed their lives.
“I’ll just look at things in a much lighter way,†Doxbeck said. “I’ll find the comedy in the most terrible situation if I can.
“Mr. Dugan told me there’s always a bright side.â€
don't know if you saw this article in today's Buffalo News :::link:::
You can also see channel 4. :::link:::
For the background for this story see :::link:::
I'm really upset about these recent events and those of the past.