Education Notes: Willcox 8th grader wins MLB essay contest

A Willcox student was honored by Major League Baseball for an essay he wrote about his experiences living with a muscle disorder that has rendered him unable to walk.

Bonita Elementary School’s Sam Ray was one of 10 winners named in the “Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life” essay contest last month, according to a press release. The contest, put on by MLB and Scholastic, honors the legacy of Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League Baseball player.

In his essay, Ray explains how he has learned to live with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease that causes weakening and wasting of the muscles in the face, scapula, arms and, in Ray’s case, legs and feet.

Ray wants to fight to find cures to muscular dystrophies, just as Robinson fought to advance civil rights in the MLB and American society at large.

“Jackie wanted change right away and he was the person who was willing to put himself in the line of fire,” Ray wrote in his essay. “... It was years after Jackie broke the color barrier in baseball that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, but he was the one that helped open the door to change.”

Ray was honored on April 14 at Chase Field before the Arizona Diamondbacks played the San Diego Padres — the day before the 72nd anniversary of Robinson breaking the MLB color barrier.

Scholastic gave him a laptop, a class set of Sharon Robinson books and shirts and a swag bag of Diamondbacks gear as a prize.

SV senior performs Shakespeare in NYC

Buena High School’s Alec Errhalt made it to the semifinals of the National Shakespeare Competition, last Monday, April 29.

Errhalt traveled to New York to perform the “I am a Jew” monologue from “The Merchant of Venice” at New York City’s Lincoln Center. He competed against 65 students from across the country and gave one of the competition’s top-10 performances, according to a press release.

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Errhalt was the Tucson region’s 34th student to perform in the national competition.

Davis Bilingual honored by national nonprofit

Davis Bilingual Elementary received the Magnet Schools of America’s “President’s Magnet School of Merit Award of Excellence,” last month.

MSA President Susan King said Davis deserved the honor because of its bilingual curriculum emphasizing environmental science and its campus culture, according to a press release.

“This is truly a unique blend of language, music and science,” King said in the release.

MSA additionally honored Carrillo K-5, Mansfeld Middle and Tucson High with Magnet School of Excellence awards, the press release said.

3 TUSD schools vandalized in April; deputies investigate

Johnson Primary School, Valencia Middle School and Cholla High School were vandalized the weekend of April 26.

A TUSD spokeswoman said anyone with information regarding any of the incidents should call the Pima County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the incidents, at 351-4900.