Students Write Book Of Poetry For Stabbing Victim

In words and in deeds, eighth-graders at a northeast Seattle school want Connie Freeburn to know that people still love her.

Pupils at Villa Academy have written a book of inspirational poems for the former Seattle resident who was kidnapped, stabbed, raped and left for dead near Kentridge High School a year ago today.

The attack left 27-year-old Freeburn brain-damaged, partially paralyzed and unable to communicate. She has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation in her parents’ hometown of Eagle, Idaho.

Last year, Terri O’Donnell, a friend of Freeburn’s and a teacher at Villa Academy, suggested her eighth-graders correspond with Freeburn by writing her motivational poems.

The children liked the idea and sent Freeburn a packet of their work in February.

Freeburn, with the aid of family members, sent the students a thank-you letter in March.”You 8th-graders have overwhelmed me with your sensitive and compassionate poetry,” the letter said. “I appreciated it more than you can imagine.”

Since then, the Villa pupils have compiled a book of about 40 inspirational poems which they also plan to send to Freeburn.

On Tuesday, they will hold a special poetry reading at the school for parents and friends.

Parents will be able to buy copies, with proceeds going to the Connie Freeburn Medical Relief Fund.

“We’re sort of her support group,” says Danielle Rohani, 14. “We’re just here to let her know that people still love her.”

In one of the poems, eighth-grader Zack Elway wrote about hope.

“Without it, we have nothing,” Elway writes. “Hope gives us strength.”

“Do you believe in hope?” he asks Freeburn in the poem. “I do.”