17-year-old Hannah Spann beamed with joy as she graduated from Merrillville High School last week, which is a huge deal for the teen, who escaped death when she was a toddler.
In an interview with ABC 7 Chicago, Spann’s family recalled how doctors didn’t believe she would pull through after a 36-inch TV fell from the dresser and on the then-toddler, leaving her in critical condition at just 2 years old.
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“I picked her up off the floor. Her head was basically dangling over my arm. She wasn’t breathing,” Hannah’s mom, Melissa Williams, said. “There were so many things wrong. They were just like, ‘We’ve never seen anyone come in here like this alive,’ so they didn’t really know what to do”
Hannah was left with a blood clot in her brain and a fractured skull from the incident and needed emergency treatment if she was going to survive. “We were all by her bedside every moment,” her mom added. “We didn’t sleep. We didn’t eat. We just prayed. Because of the grace of God, and the family and all the prayers from our family get together at that moment, she’s here today.”
Meanwhile, the rate of graduating high school teens in the US in 2023 is a topic of concern, especially with the challenges brought about by the pandemic. According to recent statistics, teenagers in foster care have high school dropout rates three times higher than their peers.
However, initiatives such as Together4Grads have been providing awards to graduates for five years now, hoping to inspire more students to finish high school. Despite this, there are still concerns about the quality of education that students receive, as evidenced by the poor performance of American K-12 students compared to those of other developed nations.
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This year’s graduating teens have plans to pursue education and careers, but the pandemic has made it difficult for them to adjust to virtual learning. Schools have reduced instruction hours and focused on non-academic topics such as Critical Race Theory.
Lowering standards and changing admissions processes in the name of diversity is also negatively impacting academic outcomes. The result is “graduating” teens that can’t read, write, or do basic math.
How can people send Hannah a monetary gift?