Teacher helps students cope with classmate loss through creativity

By JOE GORMAN

and GRAIG GRAZIOSI

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Aleysha Rosario’s desk is empty, but it is still her desk.

Her classmates at Wilson Elementary covered it with colorful messages, lamenting the loss of their peer and friend.

“We will all miss you. Why did you go so soon?” read one of the letters.

Outside the classroom, Aleysha’s locker was decorated with a blue construction paper heart bearing her name. High on the classroom’s walls, poster boards decorated with the signatures of students from across the school bore messages of sympathy and solidarity.

Aleysha, 9, is one of five children who died in a house fire Sunday evening on Parkcliffe Avenue on the city’s South Side.

Thursday, her classmates spent their afternoon making large Christmas cards for the city’s firefighters and listening to familiar holiday tunes.

As an added surprise, the Western Reserve Knitting Guild donated a bag of handmade winter hats for the children.

Though this isn’t the guild’s first time knitting and donating hats – the guild donated 500 hats this year to the Youngstown City School District – it felt compelled to share the creations with Aleysha’s class.

Courtney Angelo, her fourth-grade teacher at Wilson Elementary, has weathered the tragedy alongside her students, helping them cope through creativity.

“Emotions are hard no matter what age you are, but little kids, especially, need to be able to express what they’re feeling,” Angelo said. “They’ve been responding really well to the art.”

Back on Parkcliffe Avenue, a small, makeshift memorial has grown since the fire.

At 6 p.m. Saturday, a vigil for the family will be in the parking lot of Christ Centered Church at 3300 Hudson Ave.

The mother of the five children, Amy Negron Acevedo, 26, was discharged from a Cleveland hospital Wednesday.

Capt. Kurt Wright, fire investigator, said Thursday there was nothing new in the investigation on how the fire started.

Investigators have said they believe the cause is accidental, but they are waiting for tests to be done on samples of the home by the state Fire Marshal’s Office before confirming a specific cause.

Autopsies are also being performed on the children to determine how they died.

Wright has spoken to Negron Acevedo but he would not say what she told him.

Penny Wells of the Mahoning Valley Sojourn To The Past group, which has been helping to raise money for the family to defray funeral expenses, said the fund so far has raised $6,000.

A GoFundMe page created for the family has raised more than $9,000 toward a $20,000 goal in just three days. The address is www.gofundme.com/6jgrkgg.

Wells said the family is asking the press to respect the privacy of the mother as she recovers.