READY school classmates trying to cope with loss

CHAMPAIGN – Trenika Washington created her T-shirt last week, with a photo of her friend Kiwane Carrington on the front and a drawing of a cross on the back, the name "Kiwane" in the center and "Loving Memory" on the sides.

Washington and her classmates at the READY school, run by the Champaign-Ford Regional Office of Education, have been making posters, cards and drawings to express how they feel about Mr. Carrington's death. He died Oct. 9 when he was shot during an altercation with Champaign police.

"Drawing wasn't so hard as actually writing words to him and thinking about the situation," said Washington, a senior at READY.

She and classmate Tanisha Allen, also a senior, attended Mr. Carrington's funeral this past Friday, along with many other READY students and a dozen staff members. Allen said the funeral helped her deal with her feelings about Mr. Carrington's death – "I saw him, and he was resting" – as did talking about it in class Monday.

"It lets a little bit off of you every day," Washington agreed.

But school officials know students are still grieving.

"We know this just doesn't end with the funeral," said Donna Shonk, director of the school. "We want to be prepared to meet the needs of students any way we can."

That includes bringing in a few male community members, including the Rev. Rickey Parks of Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, who was at school Monday. Parks met with five or six students who were Mr. Carrington's closest friends, and he'll be at READY once a week for the next four weeks to talk with the boys, along with Seon Williams, a local businessman who cut Mr. Carrington's hair. Because many staff members at the school are female, the school asked a few men to come in and help the male students cope.

The school's crisis team will continue to meet as needed to talk about how students are doing, Shonk said.

"The biggest thing is not for them to bottle things up and be angry, but to learn how to deal with their emotions in a way that's positive and to talk," she said.

Last week was a hard week at the school. Shonk set up a conference room as a place where students could go to talk with staff.

"It was the talk of the community last week," Washington said. "You're sitting at home, and you're hearing about it, or you're reading the paper and hearing about it, or friends and family come over and are conversing, and you hear about it. No matter where you went, you were hearing about it."

But, she added, READY's teachers have done a good job of helping students get their work done and manage their feelings about Mr. Carrington's death.

She, Allen and two of the school's behavioral specialists, Donte Lotts and Keisha Burke, talked about their friend Monday.

Mr. Carrington could be the life of the party – he was friendly, goofy, cracking jokes, and he loved to dance. But he also was respectful and able to get down to work when he needed to, they said. He was well-liked, and he acted as a caretaker, checking in with staff members to make sure they were having a good day and trying to serve as a role model for younger students.

Lotts said Mr. Carrington's leadership skills had grown since last year, because younger students looked up to him, and that helped him assume a more responsible role.

"I think that helped him as a person," Lotts said. "If you're telling somebody to do right, you have to do right yourself."

Shonk added: "Kiwane always had a smile on his face. Despite his own hardships in his life – losing his mom and having his own personal struggles – he came to school and was happy and really loved his friends."

Burke made a memory book for Mr. Carrington's family, with help from some students.

"I wanted to honor him in a special way, so his sisters can know how much we loved him at the school," she said.

It includes journal entries by Mr. Carrington, a drawing he made of a rocket orbiting the Earth and a synopsis of one of his last assignments, in which he talks about his dream of being an astronaut.

"One thing I like about myself is that I like my swagger and how I act," Mr. Carrington wrote nine days before he died. "I also like my smartness and being respectful."

"He didn't want to be like anybody else. He was his own person – the way he acted, his whole attitude, the way he dressed," Washington said. "He was one of the realest people I knew."

Also on this date

• Fire in grain bin causes thousands in damage
• Police ask for help on basketball-size rocks on I-57
• Work planned on Goodwin Avenue on campus
• Work to close portion of Neil Street
• Herman resigns; Ikenberry, Easter to assume duties
• Herman's letter to the campus
• Obama honors unit for 'Anonymous Battle' in Vietnam
• Students grieve for classmate who died in fire
• Amtrak ridership through C-U down last year
• Obituaries

» More