Cheney: Adversity overcome

If you walk through the halls of Cheney High School and ask any staff member about Tyson Ocheltree, chances are pretty good he or she will say, “Wow, he’s a great kid.”

Ocheltree is graduating this month with a 3.8 grade-point average. He sings in the choir.

He’s planning on attending Washington State University to study engineering. He’s upbeat and positive.

By all accounts, Ocheltree is a typical student, but his journey to get his diploma hasn’t been easy.

During second grade, he lived in a nice house with his mother and three sisters. Then his mother’s boyfriend hurt her, and the family had to move. His mother got into drugs, and she and the children moved from house to house, staying with her friends.

At one point, they were living in a car.

Ocheltree’s father caught wind of what was going on and took in the kids.

They had a lot of fun, Ocheltree said, but seldom attended school.

Soon, state Child Protective Services stepped in and took the children.

For 13 days, the children were put into a foster home. Ocheltree says he hated being there but was happy he was still together with his sisters.

Then his grandmother took in the children, and they all lived together in Cheney until she died two years ago.

The summer before she died, his grandmother discussed with the children where they would like to go. She knew she was dying, Ocheltree said.

She died at the end of the summer. Ocheltree says he was grateful for that because he didn’t want to go through the grieving process, get better and then return to a lot of questions at school. It was easier to deal with it all at once.

Even though he now lives with an aunt in Spokane Valley, Ocheltree commutes to Cheney for school every day by bus.

Cheney felt like a connection to his grandmother, so he wanted to continue in school there.

“I wanted to stay here to keep in touch,” he said. “I wanted to honor her memory.”

It was a good decision. “The teachers have helped me a lot,” Ocheltree says.

His choir teacher, Harlan Henderson, is a teacher he can talk to. “He can help me through things,” Ocheltree said.

He also credits his math teacher, Jeff Butler. Some days, Ocheltree likes to sit in Butler’s classroom just because it’s a place he feels comfortable.

Many people wouldn’t think going to school would help a person through a time of grief, but Ocheltree disagrees.

“School helped me a lot,” he says.

When he was at home, he would think about missing his grandmother. But when he was at school, there were plenty of other things on which to concentrate.

Despite everything he has gone through, Ocheltree still is a positive person.

“I help every time I can,” he said. “I try to radiate nice. I try – I don’t always succeed.”

Ocheltree has come a long way since his days of moving from place to place with his family – and so has his mother.

He said he sees her every other weekend, and she’s no longer on drugs. She speaks at rehab centers to help others.

With the milestone of graduation quickly approaching, Ocheltree has been reflecting on life and how he got to where he is today.

“Every action you do actually does have an effect,” he said. “Even if it’s down the road.”

Ocheltree also knows that what he has accomplished would make his family proud.

“Yeah,” he says, “I’m really proud of what I’ve done.”