Lyles-Crouch Students Honor Officer Laboy

Dollar by dollar, Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy students took from their piggy banks, took from their Tooth Fairy money, and sold blue ribbons at $5 each to raise funds for the family of wounded Alexandria police officer Peter Laboy.

In all, students and staff raised $4,000 for the Laboy family.

Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook visited the Old Town elementary school Friday to accept the money on behalf of the family and tie a blue ribbon on a schoolyard fence near where Laboy was shot in the head Feb. 27. Some good things, Cook said, have come from the shooting.

“For the children and families who started with their dollars, and their dimes, and the money that they collected, and started this wonderful program, I will say thank you on behalf of the Laboy family, thank you on behalf of the Alexandria Police Department and the citizens, because I know this school,” Cook said. “I’ve been here before. I know their emphasis on citizenship and being respectful and being good citizens, and I think this is another outpouring of that, and we appreciate that from the heart.”

Tammy Ignacio, a cousin of Laboy’s wife, Suzanne, said Laboy, who remains hospitalized, was doing “remarkably well.” That children raised the funds was “amazing,” she said.

“It’s also a testament to our community, to our principals and to our parents, because it’s out of the mouth of babes, and so this gives them an opportunity to give back to their community, but also to see the importance of life, and giving, and so, that is what we want from our children,” she said. “So, it is heartwarming, and I know that it’s heartwarming for Suzanne, and Peter, and their family.”

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Kim Alfano, the mother of a first-grader at Lyles-Crouch, came the school Friday to see the results of the students’ hard work. Her child, who was outside the school the day Laboy was shot, told her mother she “heard the firecrackers” and saw a man fall down.

“She didn’t really feel scared,”Alfano said. “Everyone was very upbeat, and they put them into their classrooms and sort of went through the procedures. She said she knew it was serious, but she never felt scared, she was never worried because the teachers were so very calm and direct and knew exactly what they were doing. So that, to me as a parent, is worth its weight in gold.”

Alfano noted that Lyles-Crouch is a National School of Character. “They’re taught about the pillars of character on the wall inside the school: kindness, community service,” she said. “They’re sent home every month with a chart that says, if you do community service, write it down in your monthly chart, and the kids that do it are posted on the wall. It’s a point of pride in the school, and they really get involved in many different projects. ... It’s a central focus on the school, which makes it so unique.”

Jackie Lewis, a grandparent of two Lyles-Crouch students and member of the school’s Grandparents Club, came to the school Friday to support the club and Laboy’s dedication. One of her grandchildren was looking out the window the day Laboy was shot and saw him fall to the ground.

“She was sad, she was really sad, because officer Laboy’s son was a friend of my other granddaughter, who attended class together, so she used to talk about Peter all the time, so it was a sadness for all of us,” Lewis said.

Maria Gagani, mother of a fourth-grader and a PTA member, called Laboy “one of our own.”

“His son went to this school, and he also was often seen around the school helping with morning traffic,” she said. “He was a mentor. He was in the PTA. It was very shocking to us that someone we knew well had been hurt, and we wanted to do something to help out the family and also teach the kids about community spirit and how we stick up for each other.”

Gagani said students chipped in what they could to raise money for the Laboy family. “What was very moving and very telling was, we did not receive this money in big chunks,” she said. “It came in small amounts. So, everybody participated.

“We had envelopes filled with one dollar bills that kids had taken out of their own piggy bank to bring. The staff participated, the teachers participated, the families participated. We had a very high participation level, which is, I think, more important than high donations.”