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Vandals can shatter windows, but they can't break spirits. At Central Junior High School in Evergreen Park, the pride in banding together to overcome a crisis outweighs painful memories of the destruction wrought by two students on a nightlong rampage two years ago.
Principal Margaret Longo enlisted a teen performing arts troupe called MWAH! (Messages Which Are Hopeful!) last month to honor the everyday heroism of Central students, including three graduates who helped get things back to normal after the shocking incident that shut down the school district for two days in 1994.
Two boys, aged 12 and 13 at the time, broke into Central and nearby Southeast Elementary School for an orgy of destruction that caused about $100,000 worth of damage. What happened on the night of Feb. 13, 1994, is clear. But why remains a mystery.
"We never had an explanation or an apology," Longo said.
Detailing the damage to Central, Longo said "it looked like it had been bombed." Every window was broken. Chemical foam from every fire extinguisher coated walls and floors. The boys spray-painted obscenities on the walls, chewed up candy and spat it out and helped themselves to money their classmates had collected for charity. They also sowed the seeds of their own downfall by recording some of their exploits at the schools with a Polaroid camera stolen from a teacher and and leaving the photos behind.
The two boys were apprehended and placed on five years' probation. One has moved to Florida with his family, and the other spent time in a treatment center.
The extent of the damage stunned the community. "It was so against what the tradition of Evergreen Park was that it still shocks," the principal said.
Evergreen Park seems to rank pretty low on the social pathology scale, Longo said. "It's a very nice, secure little community where there's a lot of two-parent homes," she said. Discipline records for the 364 7th- and 8th-graders at Central don't reveal a lot of serious offenses, Longo said, "just typical junior high behavior (such as) chewing gum."
The outpouring of sympathy and support that heartened school officials was more typical of the town and its people than the destruction. "As a principal, it was very scary for me to turn on the TV and wait to hear what the kids would say," she recalled.
But she found Central students felt a loyalty and affection for their school and weren't afraid to say so, even with the cameras rolling.
And when Longo was talking with MWAH! founder Ray Moffitt of Elmhurst about "the transitions kids are going through," the idea of honoring students who made a special effort to help out during the crisis seemed like a natural. Brandi Hupke, who wrote Longo an encouraging note offering her help, and Sal Hernandez and Brian Cousert, who regained some of the money stolen from the school, were perfect examples of everyday heroism.
"I found this rainbow and thought you could use it," wrote Hupke, now a 14-year-old freshman at Evergreen Park High School. She accompanied her note offering to help in the cleanup with a picture of a rainbow.
"(Hupke) was somebody who wasn't like a star here . . . just a grounded, sensible kid," Longo said. Hupke was presented with a red rose in honor of her quiet heroism.
Hernandez and Cousert also are students at Evergreen Park High School. In February 1994, with school closed for the cleanup, Hernandez and Cousert were spending their unexpected holiday roaming around Chicago Ridge Mall when they met up with the culprits. "We saw them and we didn't think anything of it about the money. . . . Then we got an idea," Hernandez explained.
They went back and demanded a share of the loot. They retrieved $10, which they returned when school reopened. When Hernandez and Cousert came to see Longo, "they had their hands in pockets because that's how they always stood," she recalled. "They just came in and emptied their pockets and said, `At least we got that much for you.' "
The graduates are heroes "because they cared more about other people than they cared about themselves," Longo said. "There's so many of you here who are heroes in who you are," she said, noting that Central students volunteer to work in soup kitchens and nursing homes, to aid the handicapped and assist the elderly and disabled in nursing homes.
Students, teachers and parents pulled together and overcame an obstacle, she said. "Instead of letting (the vandalism) happen to us, we got together as a community and made something bad really good . . . we are a community that cares about each other."
What's going on at Central Junior High is hopeful, Longo said. There's a continuing effort to give students opportunities for positive contributions and to keep the school open to the community.
"We didn't let that (vandalism) close our schools down," she said. Central Junior High is a hub of activity for everything from soccer practice to meetings to music lessons, she said. "Anything that someone wants. . . . We want to make sure we are a community resource."
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