Staying focused on graduation: Booker T. seniors cross the stage after difficult year - The Dallas Morning News

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Principal Scott Rudes didn’t want to use the word “unprecedented” when addressing Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ Class of 2021. Instead, he wanted to focus on “remarkable” and “visionary.”

The Booker T. graduates, like students across the country, emerged through stretches of isolation and loneliness. Some took on extra jobs to help their families as parents lost work. Others stepped in to help younger siblings navigate virtual learning. They navigated grief.

Over the past 15 months, the coronavirus pandemic upended the traditions — and renowned performances — that students and teachers treasure at the magnet school nestled in Dallas’ arts district.

Two graduates faced especially significant personal challenges, dealing with health crises and lingering uncertainty, ahead of taking home their diplomas.

Still, on Saturday, the senior class celebrated a final milestone: crossing the graduation stage, together. Rudes says their strength will continue to be reflected in their lives and in their art.

1/8Graduate Kadar Price raises his diploma in celebration during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

2/8Karon Cogdill, director of the Theater Conservatory for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, is acknowledged during commencement ceremonies for the school at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Cogdill is retiring after more than 40 years at the school.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

3/8Principal Scott Rudes rips open his cap and gown to show off a “Keep Booker T Wierd” t-shirt during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

4/8Graduates celebrate after the turning of the tassel during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

5/8Eryn Fayson waves to classmates from her wheelchair as they process to receive their diplomas during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Fayson was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year and had to overcome tremendous new challenges to complete her high school career.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

6/8Members of the Music Conservatory perform during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

7/8A graduate show off her diploma after crossing the stage during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

8/8Korbin Bilbrey crosses the stage in a wheelchair to receive his diploma during commencement ceremonies for Booker T. Washington HSPVA at Loos Field House on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Bilbrey was hit head-on by a distracted driver on Mockingbird and sustained a head injury, crushed hip and other broken bones. He returned home for the first time on Thursday, two months to the day after the accident, and graduated Saturday.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

School after surgery

After spending hours of class looking at her peers and instructors through small squares on Zoom in her final fall semester of high school, Eryn Fayson began looking forward to returning to school in-person during the spring.

She longed to build props again for elaborate theater performances instead of submitting plans for sets online.

But when it was time for Eryn to return to campus, unexplained nausea and headaches kept her away. Doctors diagnosed her with a brain tumor and explained that treatment would have to move quickly.

Eryn underwent five surgeries in April. She celebrated her 18th birthday in an intensive care unit. She missed prom and plenty of other hallmark events that signify the end of high school. Through it all, she remained focused on graduation.

She worked to finish assignments in advance of her surgeries, knowing that it would be more complicated to work on them after, when she struggled to regain motor skills.

“Right when she got out of surgery, one of the first things she was worried about was her assignments, her work,” said Eryn’s sister, Crislyn. “In surgery, you would think that would be the last thing that was on your mind.”

Eryn’s father, Chris, accompanied her to all the treatments and helped her relearn to walk and write. Together they celebrated incremental changes, like when Eryn was able to sign her name in a buddy’s graduation card.

He watched as his daughter, known for mapping out her plans well in advance, adapted over and over to new obstacles.

“Her walk has taught me, even though I’m a lot older, it taught me about the smaller things in life that you should appreciate — the little-bitty things that you’re able to do,” Chris said.

Eryn still has another seven to 10 months of chemotherapy ahead of her. And after that, Eryn plans to enroll at Southern Methodist University in an accounting program.

“It’s going to be amazing,” she said. “I’m just excited that I get to graduate, and they think of me that highly.”

1/6Eryn Fayson sits in a chair in her front yard and waves to well wishers with her mother Erica Fayson after her graduation from Booker T. Washington HSPVA on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Eryn was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year and had to overcome tremendous new challenges to complete her high school career. The family marked her graduation with a drive-by celebration.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

2/6Kay Johnson wears a t-shirt in support as she waves to her niece Eryn Fayson as well wishers arrive to celebrate Eryn’s graduation from Booker T. Washington HSPVA on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

3/6Antwone Anthony, 3, carries a senior photo of his cousin Eryn Fayson as well wishers arrive to celebrate Eryn’s graduation from Booker T. Washington HSPVA on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

4/6Eryn Fayson gets a hug from a well wisher in her front yard after her graduation from Booker T. Washington HSPVA on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

5/6Aunt Kay Johnson drops off a card for her niece Eryn Fayson’s graduation from Booker T. Washington HSPVA on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

6/6Eryn Fayson waves to well wishers as she is steadied by her mother Erica Fayson during a celebration at home after her graduation from Booker T. Washington HSPVA on Saturday, June 19, 2021.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

‘The music is there’

During those first 10 days her son was in the hospital, Tina Bilbrey didn’t know if he would live.

A distracted driver had crashed into 18-year-old Korbin’s car head-on. He suffered broken bones, a traumatic brain injury and a collapsed lung that somehow seemed to be the least of the doctors’ concerns.

As Korbin recovered, Bilbrey wondered: Would he be able to play his guitars again? Would he remember his music, holding on to his ability to play by ear?

Korbin came home from a two-month hospital and rehabilitation stay Thursday. His electric guitar waited for him. As he played the Epiphone in his room for the first time, his parents looked on from the doorway.

“The music is there,” Bilbrey said.

1/5As his parents Tina and Chase Bilbrey listen from the doorway of his room, Korbin Bilbrey plays his electric guitar for the first time since a devastating accident on his first day home after spending two months in the hospital on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Dallas. Bilbrey, a Booker T. Washington HSPVA music student, was hit head-on by a distracted driver on Mockingbird and sustained a head injury, crushed hip and other broken bones. He returned home for the first time on Thursday, two months to the day after the accident and graduated Saturday.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

2/5Korbin Bilbrey’s cap and gown hand next to the back door of his family’s home on his first day home after spending two months in the hospital on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

3/5Korbin Bilbrey is steadied by his girlfriend has he gets up to go to the dinner table with his family on his first day home after spending two months in the hospital and on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

4/5A Garfield sticker is seen on Korbin Bilbrey’s electric guitar on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

5/5Korbin Bilbrey is steadied by his mother Tina Bilbrey as he gets up from his bed, which has been moved to the family’s game room, on his first day home after spending two months in the hospital on Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

The Booker T. community rallied around the family, organizing a meal train. Friends launched a GoFundMe that raised more than $50,000 to help cover medical expenses.

On the page, the Bilbreys sent updates, keeping people in the loop as Korbin emerged from a coma and as his feeding tube came out. On May 20, they wrote: “Our hope is that he crosses the stage and gets his diploma.”

On Saturday, he did — though in the wheelchair he uses as his hip continues to mend. The Bilbreys’ East Dallas home, finally loud again, is filled with a mix of “Welcome home” and “Congrats grad” balloons.

Korbin told hospital workers how important it was for him to be out ahead of graduation, one of those special days impossible to replicate.

“I know it’s one of those things I can never go back to do,” he said.

For his mom, it’s a moment that signifies his survival.

“He gets to go on,” she said.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.

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