How much more can a community take?... How much more can a K-4 school take?

A pair of brothers (third and fourth-graders) strangled along with their mother in their Columbia, Illinois home three weeks ago... and now over the weekend a second-grade teacher from the same school, Parkview Elementary dies in a crash near Red Bud.

Tracey Luhr had only taught at Parkview for three years. The assistant principal Brad Landgraf told me he feels "blessed to have known her."

Andrea Khoury, the parent of a second-grader in Mrs. Luhr's class told me how she went out of her way for her students... way beyond the classroom.

"She took the time to go to their extracurricular activities whether they were on weekends or nights and she made a book for every child in her class with the pictures she took and gave them to the kids, something to remember her by and the year by," explained Khoury.

Superintendent Ed Settles who tried to hire her when he worked for another district, but ended up coming to hers, called Luhr at "teachers, teacher" who came up with creative jingles to help her students remember what they learned.

By now, you get the idea about Tracey Luhr. What I don't get is how a school with 760 students and 75 staff members deals with two tragedies involving two students and one teacher in a span of three weeks. But they're coping by coming closer together says Settles.

This is the last week of school... A time of anticipation and excitement about summer vacation. Today was "Field Day." I asked Settles if there was talk of cancelling it. He said, no way. Tracey would have wanted it to go on. Teachers renamed the day among themselves "Tracey Day."

As she was walking away with her kids, parent Andrea Khoury said, "Oh by the way, Tracey's class won Field Day."

Fitting.

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