HOLLADAY — Hours after an Evergreen Junior High student collapsed during class Wednesday and later died, his classmates found a way to honor him.
As children streamed outside to catch the bus home, about a dozen students plopped the fallen eighth-grader's desk near the school's entrance and autographed the place where the boy once etched his name. A stream of others lined up to write messages on the desk as they cried, hugged and consoled each other.
"We'll miss you," wrote one student. "So many people love you," wrote another. One child's message called the boy "our best friend." A couple others apologized for past transgressions.
The boy, whose name was not released Wednesday by Granite School District officials, was in second-period gym class around 10:15 or 10:30 that morning, principal Lynn Boehme said. The class had been participating in a walk/run exercise at the outdoor track, which Boehme described as a typical class activity. The class moved inside when the weather changed.
As the student approached the school, he collapsed.
The reason is unknown, district officials said.
The school knew of no medical condition, Boehme said.
A teacher trained as an emergency medical technician attempted to resuscitate the student and emergency crews transported the boy to a hospital, district spokesman Randy Ripplinger said.
Family members, who have deep roots in the Evergreen community, notified the school just after noon that the boy died, Boehme said.
"It's a shock," the principal said. "We feel a real loss today."
Around 1:30, Boehme delivered the bad news over the school's PA system.
"It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," he said. "I've been in this business 36 years and never had this occur. . . . It's just been a tough day. Our hearts go out to the parents, to the family."
Crisis counselors came to the school to help anyone who needed to talk.
School counselor John Tomasi talked with the student's fourth-period science class, where the young teens reflected on their friend and tried to make sense of the sudden loss.
"To see that desk empty was hard on everyone," Tomasi said.
By the end of his visit, Tomasi said students started discussing ways they might remember their friend. Once the school bell rang, some apparently had settled on spelling out their feelings on the boy's desk.
"I think they'll probably give it to the family as an expression of their grief," Tomasi said.
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com