Elliott Harty

So.. I haven't posted in a while. We suffered a tragedy this last week. The death of one of my grade 11 students. It has been very difficult. Instead of rambling I'm just posting the speech i gave at his memorial today.



When I heard the news of Elliott’s passing, I was as we all were, shocked and heartbroken. I went into my classroom to absorb it all and I remember looking around at all of the empty desks in the room. Though they were all empty, Elliott’s desk seemed emptier than the rest. He had a presence wherever he went, in the classroom, the hallways, at a party or even here in the courtyard. We can feel the loss. Throughout the past week I have had many students in my classroom to talk, to cry and to remember Elliott. Though there have been countless tears, through those tears there has also been much laughter. Things Elliott said and did. He was passionate about so many things, his friends of course being one of his biggest passions. So much so that not a class went by that along with sneaking in a slurpee, he was constantly sneaking text messages.

There are so many things that I will remember about Elliott. One of which has to be the Spitz that he stole. I made the mistake one day of giving Elliott and his friends a packet of sunflower seeds. Well now Elliott knew where they were. I had to move them INTO my desk so they would not be nabbed. When that didn’t work the next step was moving them into my locked cupboard. That seemed to work, at least as far as I know! No matter how mad I was at Elliott for not working as well as he could, he could always make me laugh. I was so happy during this one class that he was working so intently on what I thought was his class work. I was wrong. What he was really doing was writing out the ultimate curry recipe for me to try. He was convinced I could do it. No matter how many times I assured him that there was a reason my husband is the cook in the family! Each week there was a new story for him to tell me in our daily conversations at my desk at the end of class. It could be about the party that weekend, the curry he made or my favourite, the mysterious visit from the Easter Bunny this year.

Though I could go on and on, what I most want to express is how much Elliott will be missed. He was a one of a kind kid, and I feel very lucky that I had the chance to spend the year with him