KIDS DIG UP PRIDE ALONG WITH TREASURE STUDENTS DO RIGHT WITH LONG-LOST RING.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
The lesson plan for the day was for Dara Bloom to teach the 16 students in her special-education class at Sylmar High School Sylmar High School is a public school in the northeast San Fernando Valley in the Sylmar district of Los Angeles, California. Established in the 1950s, it is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, District 2, and serves more than 3,600 students in grades 9-12. to take pride in what they do. They would end up with plenty of pride - and a lot more. The kids were ripping out stumps on the school grounds a few weeks ago to plant a rose garden when they stopped and excitedly called to teacher's assistant Annette Goff. ``Look, Mrs. Goff,'' one of them said. ``We found a treasure.'' The treasure was a 1972 class ring with the initials KFH KFH Kuwait Finance House KFH Kaiser Foundation Hospital KFH Katonai Felderíto Hivatal (Military Intelligence Office; Hungary) etched inside the band. Back in the classroom, Bloom and Goff used this found treasure as a life-skills lesson for these teenage students with autism autism (ô`tĭzəm), developmental disability resulting from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain. It is characterized by the abnormal development of communication skills, social skills, and reasoning. , Down syndrome Down syndrome, congenital disorder characterized by mild to severe mental retardation, slow physical development, and characteristic physical features. Down syndrome affects about 1 in every 730 live births and occurs in all populations equally. and learning disabilities. They talked about what was the right thing to do, then left it to the students to decide. Should they keep the ring or try to return it? ``Only two out of the 16 said they didn't want to give it back,'' Bloom said Friday, laughing. ``Fourteen out of 16 isn't bad.'' Goff went on www.classmates.com - an online service that tracks high school and college alumni - and got the names of students from the Class of 1972 at Sylmar High. ``I only had the initials, but I got lucky. There was only one student with those initials - Kevin Hendley. I gave him a call.'' Kevin Hendley smiled as he put down the phone in his Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley home a couple of weeks ago. He couldn't believe it. Somebody had found the class ring that had slipped off his finger while he was playing handball handball Any of a variety games in which a small rubber ball is struck against a wall with the hand or fist. It can be played in a three- or four-walled court or against a single wall by two or four players (in singles or doubles games, respectively). at the school 33 years earlier. ``I looked and looked for that ring until it was dark that day because I was afraid to go home without it,'' Hendley said. ``I thought my mother would kill me.'' She didn't kill him, Beverly Noviello said, but she was plenty mad. ``I was widowed and didn't have much money. That ring cost $70 or $75, I think,'' she recalled. ``Did he tell you it was the second one he lost?'' Nope, Hendley hadn't mentioned it. ``He left the first one on the hood of his car when he was working on it. He forgot it and just drove off. Typical teenager. I wasn't too happy. ``When he came home and told me he lost the second one, I told him to go back out there and find it because there wasn't going to be any third one,'' Beverly said. ``When he called me last week and told me the kids had found the ring, I was stunned stun tr.v. stunned, stun·ning, stuns 1. To daze or render senseless, by or as if by a blow. 2. To overwhelm or daze with a loud noise. 3. . All these years. I told him he better give it to me for safekeeping Safekeeping The storage of assets or other items of value in a protected area. Notes: Individuals may use self-directed methods of safekeeping or the services of a bank or brokerage firm. .'' Before he met the kids, Hendley wrote a letter thanking them, just in case the words wouldn't come when they handed him back his lost class ring. ``They took my finger and slipped it on,'' Hendley said. ``I thought I was going to bust out "Bust Out" is the twenty-third episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the tenth of the show's second season. It was written by Frank Renzulli, Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, directed by John Patterson and originally aired on Sunday March 19 2000. crying. I had tears in my eyes In My Eyes was a Boston straight edge band that spearheaded the 1997 youth crew revival along with Ten Yard Fight, Bane, The Trust, Fastbreak and Floorpunch. The band and its members were a part of the hot bed that was the Boston music scene in the late 90's and early 2000's. . ``You could tell from looking at their faces that these beautiful kids were just so happy and proud that they found my ring, and were giving it back to me.'' No, he's not giving it to his mother for safekeeping, he said. He's wearing it. The whole incident gave her kids a great life-skills lesson, Bloom said. After Hendley left the school, she and Goff asked the students how they felt. They just looked at each other and their teachers, and smiled. ``These are kids who traditionally suffer from low self-esteem, but not this week,'' Bloom said. ``This week they were filled with self-esteem - feeling good and proud about what they had done for this man.'' Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Kevin Hendley shows off the high school ring that he lost in 1972. The ring was found recently by Sylmar High School students while working on a garden at the campus, and their teacher tracked down Hendley, who now lives in the Antelope Valley. (2) As her students look on Thursday, Sylmar High School special education teacher's assistant Annette Goff gives Kevin Hendley the high school ring he had lost in 1972. Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer |
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