Girl’s classmates recall her kindness

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BY ROD STETZERrstetzer@chippewa.com
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 12:15 PM CDT

They are sixth grade girls. They giggle, they laugh, and they occasionally talk over each other to add another tidbit to a story.

But this has been a very difficult week for Jasmine Jorgensen, Carly Beaudette, Laurie Fried, Makala Schabell, Jasmine Bluedorn and Courtney Ellefson. It’s been equally as hard for the rest of the students in the Chippewa Falls Middle School class taught by Barb Dulmes and Tamara Harris.

They realize they lost a very special classmate and student in Morgan Greenhalgh. The 11-year-old died early Sunday morning in a bus-truck accident, along with her grandfather, Doug Greenhalgh, grandmother, Therese Greenhalgh, bus driver Paul Rasmus and student-teacher Branden Atherton.

“She was really nice and she really helped people,” Makala Schabell said. When a boy broke his arm, she helped him carry his books.

Laurie Fried met Morgan in the first grade.

“She’s really smart like that,” she said. “When someone needed help, they didn’t have to ask. She would, like, be there,” she said.

“She was nice to everybody,” Jasmine Bluedorn said.

Carly Beaudette said Morgan was always smiling and just couldn’t be mean. She remembers one time a teacher was giving a demonstration. “She was supposed to act out being a bully and she couldn’t do it.”

“She was an angel,” said Courtney Ellefson. “She could never do anything bad.”

Do something bad? Perhaps not. Angel? Well, Morgan was an 11-year-old girl, after all.

“She always used to, when she was like with Daryl Hart in social studies class, giggle and laugh. Daryl and Morgan got into trouble and had to go to the back table,” said Jasmine Jorgenson.

“But they always would find a way to talk anyway,” Courtney added.

Laurie Freid said not even a week ago she decided to crack her knuckles, a sound that caught the ears of Morgan. “She looked and sounded really mad, but she wasn’t. She said, ‘Stop it!’”

The students heard about Morgan’s death by various sources. Jasmine Bluedorn said her mother asked her on Monday whether she knew Morgan. “I thought, ‘oh no,’” she said.

Laurie Fried got the news from watching TV.

“When I saw her name on the bottom of the screen, I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is not going to be good.’”

Carly Beaudette said the teachers have helped the students a lot this week, allowing them to talk about Morgan’s death.

As the students have had a difficult time, so have the teachers.

“I think that we’ve pulled together as a staff and as a family,” Barb Dulmes said. “We’ve all gone through stages of grief.”

Tamara Harris agreed. “We’re all sticking together . . . It’s been a long week.”

It’s been made longer by the recent death of Ann Goodall, a former librarian at the Chippewa Falls middle and high schools. And Tuesday was the funeral for eighth grader Luke Bathke, who died last week.

Other teachers and classes are thinking of Dulmes and Harris’ class. This week, the sixth grade class of Bobbi Cook sent their schoolmates a sympathy card.

They knew Morgan Greenhalgh was a special 11-year-old.

Harris said Morgan was always smiling and trying to do her best at school and playing basketball. She would help other kids and say, “I would like to be your friend,” Harris recalled.

Dulmes said someone described Morgan as being the heartbeat of the class.

“She was always there. And you could feel her presence in the classroom, always willing to participate,” Dulmes said.

Reach Rod Stetzer at rstetzer@chippewa.com.