New to his school this fall, a shy De’vonte Bailey was finally becoming comfortable around his peers and teachers.

Now mourning an empty chair in the classroom, his school community is determined to keep the fourth grader’s memory alive.

“For the short amount of time that we had him, he was very shy, so it took a lot to just pull De’vonte out of De’vonte,” said Susan Fitzpatrick, social studies and English language arts teacher at Explorers Academy of Science & Technology.

“One of the best things that we do when we read our stories in ELA, is that we tend to act them out,” she said. “When I saw him raise his hand and he wanted to be one of the characters, that was excellent. He just smiled and had fun acting.”

Mrs. Fitzpatrick was among the faculty, students, and community members who

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