Support From Principal, Teacher Motivates Webster Student To Graduate

Tulsa's Webster High School will hold graduation next week, and one student will cross the stage who almost didn't start her senior year.

When classes started at Webster last fall, there was a rising senior who stayed home; but there was a handful of people who decided that was not going to work.

Now, Stormey Bell is taking finals, getting ready for graduation and preparing for college.

“I have all these opportunities to go to college, and I'm kind of scared, going to college, but I want to better my education for myself,” she said.

At the start of the year, the staff noticed Bell was on the roll but not in class.

The principal and one of Bell’s favorite teachers from seventh grade went looking. They knocked on doors and tracked down a grandparent who helped make the connection.

Bell said, "And they're the people who pushed me to come back."

That brief connection was what she needed.

"It made me feel good, that I can do it, that I have their support," she said. “Kind of a bittersweet moment to have teachers like that care for you when you don't have anyone else there."

It's something Principal Shelly Holman said she's heard before.

"Many kids do not have any caring adult, and if they can find one in the building, that is huge in their life to be successful," she said.

For Bell, it was Holman and her favorite math teacher, Mr. Buell, who, next week, will see her get a diploma – and, next year, will see her picture in the lobby of Webster on the Wall of Graduates.