It was a day Jason and Keely Roberts thought they would never see. Their 8-year-old son, Cooper returned to school for the first time since suffering life-threatening injuries from the Highland Park shooting on July 4.
Cooper, who now uses a wheelchair, started third grade on Monday, joining his twin brother, Luke. The news comes a few weeks after Cooper reunited with his family for the first time since the shooting.
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“We cried in the parking lot as he wheeled himself into the school, cried as we pulled out of the parking lot … we were just a mess!” the family said in a statement. “The life-threatening nature of his injuries and the significant rehabilitation he has needed (and continues to need for hours every day) made it seem as though returning to school would be something we could only hope for way in the distant future.”
Cooper’s return to school was near perfect, the family said.
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“He loved every minute, and his exact words were, ‘if I had not been shot, paralyzed, and had to be in a wheelchair, it would have been a perfect school day, but it was a really great day! I loved it!’”
The third grader will need to remain in day therapy each week and will be reevaluated on a consistent basis, which will mean a “slow and gradual” transition back to school.
He will not be able to attend school all day or every day, according to the family.
“Nevertheless, his return to school this week is an incredible milestone for a little boy who almost three months to the day of his first day of third grade had been desperately fighting for his life from critical gunshot wounds and is now wheelchair bound,” the family said.
The Roberts family said Cooper has anxieties about how being paralyzed affects him in physical, social and academic environments.
“The endless ‘what if’ questions he thinks about … these run across his mind and out literally all day long, like an endless reel of worry,” the family said. “We have also learned, fast and hard, that we can only take one day at a time.”
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There is sadness and pain with Cooper’s return to school, the family said. He is sad to not be able to run around in the field with friends at recess; he cannot play in the jungle gym, hang on the monkey bars, slide down the slide, swing on swings or kick a ball.
“Yet, Cooper continues to affirm for us that his spirit, his soul, his ‘Cooperness’ remains,‘’ the family said. “The hideous, evil act did not take that from him because he won’t let it.”
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The family described Cooper as “the sporty kid” who is more concerned about others than he is about himself and who loves his family and friends “fiercely.”
The family said they attribute Cooper’s survival to the love and prayers received from around the world.
“We continue to ask for your prayers for Cooper,” the family said. “We believe that Cooper’s story is just beginning and that he can, and will, show the world that there is no greater power in the world than the power of love.”
A GoFundMe page to cover the medical and financial needs the Roberts family will face as their journey of healing continues has collected more than $2 million.
