The third of five for the class of 2025: Tra’Paul.
Tra’Paul really challenged me as a teacher. But as you will see, we definitely formed a bond. I have more pictures of him, by far, than any other student. Why? Because of that bond. He challenged me and I tried to challenge him. And whenever we went anywhere, he was with me. He walked besides me. He would take my arm as we went down the hallway. He was never more than 35 to 85 feet from me (hyperbole), unless of course, I was looking for him. Which isn’t bad, inside the confines of Waco High School. But when when we were at Magnolia on a field trip? Or the mall? Or the train station?
But then, why was I worried? It was Tra’Paul. He wasn’t going to break anything, even though he wanted to touch everything. He was and is curious.
The real break through for me, was during his junior year. He did something out of line in the classroom, and I took him out into the hall to talk to him. AS I was reading him the riot act, he suddenly reached up and took my glasses off my face. I was speechless. I really thought he was going to twist my glasses into a pretzel.
I got my glass back and told him, “DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!”
So he didn’t.
He took both his hands and put them on my face. What? I thought he was about to hit me or something.
At this point, I was so angry at him, I had no idea what to do. So I called for behavior to come and deal with him.
I made sure to tell his sister, Shay, when she picked him up that afternoon. In fact, I may have called her to come and get him early. I told her what happened and that he had grabbed my face.
She said, “Mr. Hammons, he wasn’t going to hurt you. He was trying to make you smile.”
What?!? Make me smile? I was speechless and… humbled. This young man was more concerned with the fact that I wasn’t happy than anything else. Did I say I was humbled? My heart broke.
OK… That’s Tra’Paul. Yes, I get teary eyed, every time I think about it.
From that point on… I really began to understand. Tra’Paul is like a happy 5-year-old in a linebacker’s body. I had seen glimpses of this before, like the time I played an episode of Sid The Science Kid for the class. Tra’Paul was up, dancing and singing along with the entire show. In fact, he had the show memorized. We all laughed and he sang away.
After that one bit of information from Shay, I never really had any trouble with Tra’Paul again. Sure, he would wander off. He would try to beat the other kids to lunch. He would take his time whenever we were in a hurry. (I called it Tra’Paul time). But it was OK. That was Tra’Paul.
Because we had formed such a bond, I was asked to walk with him during graduation. We were not sure if he would get up and begin to walk around as we waited for his line of students to go up to the stage. I know I wanted to get up and walk around. Maybe that is the real reason they asked me to watch him. He wouldn’t let me do that.
So we sat together on the field. We walked together in the line. He waved at everyone that waved at him. He was so joyful going across the stage that I got so caught up in that when the administration told him congratulations, I said “thank you” as well.
After we got off the stage, his mother asked that I escort him back to her, so they could leave early.
“No Hammons!”
Tra’Paul was having none of it. He knew that graduation wasn’t over until he got to throw his hat. So we sat back down, waiting for the rest of the 800 other students to cross the stage. Did I say there were more than 800 students?
Finally, that moment came. He threw his hat. Then we had to wait until the school song was finished. And then… he still didn’t want to leave. He was soaking up every minute.
The only reason he left was that his sister came down onto the field and escorted him out. What a wonderful evening.
Enjoy the pictures, especially the graduation pics.
If you would like to see my post on Tonsie, click here.
If you would like to see my post on Jorge, click here.
I have two more posts to go: Austin’s and Isaiah’s.
My favorite picture from the night.
After crossing the stage.
With Tonsie. They went to the prom together.
Our walk to Benny ‘n Beaus. Anthony, Antianna, and Miranda graduated last year, class of 2024.
We got caught in a rain shower on the bridge over the Brazos.
As I said, he loved to touch everything, and try on some clothes. This was on a field trip to the mall.
Notice the railroad sign? So did he. He wanted to wait there until the train came by. It did about 30 minutes later.
The train finally came by, and we watched it from the top of the WACO ISD parking garage.
On the bridge over the Brazos.
Photobomb!
No, we did nog go inside to eat.
Our first trip to Bitty ‘n Beaus.
Never too old for the slide!
Leaving his mark!
The day we took the Amtrak train from Temple to McGregor.
When Tra’Paul works, he really works hard.
We decided to plant a garden in the courtyard and had to move some pavers in order to do so. Once he got the idea that they needed to be moved, he moved just about all of them.
Sadly, the courtyard had no water hose. Not a single seed came to fruition.
A pep rally for classmate Fidencio, who was on the district champion soccer team.
This was another project that Tra’Paul loved. We decided to paint murals on the walls, since we had no windows, and the walls were institutional white. Once we taught Tra’Paul what to do… he kept right on going.
I can remember saying, “Tra’Paul, put your brush down. No more painting. Your mother is here to pick you up.”
He didn’t want to leave.
All photos are copyright © Timothy J. Hammons, 2025.
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