Erin Leary & South Shore Charter School
08.8.2009 By Kaitlin Keane The Patriot Ledger Posted Aug 08, 2009 @ 09:20 AM
NORWELL —
It is a routine students at South Shore Charter Public School know too well.
As news of Erin Leary’s death spread through the tight-knit community this week, a familiar process began: Students, and faculty rallied together to support Leary’s family and cope with yet another loss.
Leary is the fourth student from South Shore Charter Public to die in three years. Since 2006, the school has lost students to car crashes, leukemia and suicide.
For the small Norwell school, where a graduating class barely exceeds 20 students and friendships span all grade levels, news of another death was devastating.
“It’s so many deaths in such a short time at such a small school,” said director Pru Goodale, who notified students Friday. “It’s just so much for them to absorb.”
Goodale said the school has become painfully familiar with the necessary steps that follow a death. Grief councilors are called in, families are notified, and students are comforted.
“We’re like a family,” said Carly Anne Hayes, a 2009 graduate whose sister, Alison, died of leukemia last year.
Hayes said the deaths have only strengthened a bond forged early on, as the new school moved to three locations before settling in Norwell.
“We’ve grown through these things,” Hayes said. “They always bring in outside councilors, but we never seem to need them as much as they expect because we have each other.”
Parents of students who have died continue to bond together in support of the school and each other, Goodale said.
A memorial garden was planted on school grounds by mothers of the students, and a scholarship to pay for mandatory defensive-driving lessons was started by Lucy Wightman after her daughter, Torri was killed in a 2006 crash.
Goodale said grief councilors will be available at the school Monday, and more help will be available to students when school starts in September.






