Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993 TAG: 9306120040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"One hour . . . and 27 minutes of school," he figured.
No, wait.
"An hour and 17 minutes of school!"
Whhhheeeew. Freedom - so close he could taste it.
Not just taste it, smell it. And it smelled like . . . pizza! Free pizza! There, in the back of the room it sat, boxes and boxes of it!
Courtesy of Pizza Hut. But this pizza would taste bittersweet. It wasn't delivered to mark the simple passing of another group of 12-year-olds through Mary Ellen Stokes' English class at William Byrd Middle School. This pizza had another purpose.
This was comfort food.
Pizza Hut donated the pies to these seventh-graders, eager to end their school year and leap into summer vacation, to help them through one last lesson.
The pies were there because Erica Whitfield's mother had died of cancer a week before school ended. And because Erica's friends had been no more prepared to let go of Erica than she had been to let go of her mother.
So they threw her a party on the last day of school, probably the last time she would see most of them. Erica and her brother are moving to Manassas to live with relatives.
Correction. Erica, her brother and a 4-foot teddy bear wearing a T-shirt signed by Erica's friends.
"They wanted her to have something to look at, to have and to hold onto to remind her of them through the years," said Stokes, whose mission it was to spend $140 the children raised to buy Erica her farewell presents.
In addition to the bear, the class gave Erica a $100 savings bond, some pocket money, flowers, balloons and a gift card almost as big as the bear.
Erica took it all in stride.
Even the parting gift from her 13-year-old boyfriend, Josh Thompson. She waited patiently as he, with trembling hands, clasped a gold bracelet around her tiny wrist.
They've been dating since March.
She said they'll stay in touch. She's coming back to visit "plenty of times."
In fact, all of Erica's classmates have promised to keep in touch - for 20 years.
They spent much of the last hour of school folding invitations and taking snapshots for a 20-year reunion they plan to hold at the Hotel Roanoke - or the airport, if the hotel isn't ready.
"We're all going to gather together to see how our lives have changed," said Katie Reich, who plans to be in Georgia by then because she likes the mountains down there.
Students all over Roanoke County and Salem busied themselves Friday - their last day of school and start of a host of graduation ceremonies - with thoughts of the future. Forget the blackboard. Behind their desks, their minds wandered off to summer camp and community poolsides and weeklong vacations in Florida.
But while Salem and county teachers struggled to hold their students' attention for those seemingly endless last minutes, Roanoke teachers looked forward to two more days in the classroom. School ends Tuesday in the city.
Nathan Ives never would have made it that long.
"My sister's almost been out [of school] for an hour," he complained Friday, three minutes before the 12:30 bell was to release him from Jessie Derey's keyboarding class.
Derey managed to hold her students' attention for most of the final hour by letting them make Father's Day cards on their computers. But by 12:15, the sixth-graders were fidgeting, cries of "Ms. Derey!" reached an anxious pitch, and the printers produced more skull-and-crossbones graphics than warm, holiday sentiments.
"I don't want to do nothing!" protested one student who finished her cards early.
Derey finally gave in, turning her students loose into the hallway, just as Principal Steve Lonker began his announcements.
"I do not want any students released before the bell," he began. Lonker had some other advice to give, too, having to do with treating bus drivers with respect and courtesy.
It was lost in the rush to freedom.
by CNB