Computer a dream gift for GRCHS student

By KRYSTAL ROARK
Sun Staff Writer

She also is prone to seizures, sometimes as many as 25 a day. But despite those difficulties, which require her to have a full-time aide while at school, she has a 3.25 GPA, has been offered college scholarships and has taken more credits than she needs to finish school and now is taking electives.

However, unlike for most children, going to school has not been easy.

“She was taking six epileptic drugs five times a day and was homebound,” Mrs. Noble said.

When her daughter was 10, Mrs. Noble battled with the school system in Atlanta, where they lived, to allow her to attend classes and eventually won.

“I fought to keep her in school,” she said, noting how much her daughter loves to go to school and sometimes does not want to leave at the end of the day.

When Miss Crawford was 13, she underwent a vagal nerve stimulator implant — the first of its kind at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in Atlanta — that reduced the frequency of the seizures, drastically cutting them down on good days. But Mrs. Noble said there still are “bad days” for her daughter, who still only missed five and a half days of school during the first nine weeks of this semester.

Miss Crawford said her favorite subjects are business and art, and she plans to take pottery next semester.

“She’s a very talented artist,” said Susan Stoneking, one of Miss Crawford’s teachers and who Mrs. Noble called one of her daughter’s good friends.

According to aide Thelma Allen, Miss Crawford earns school credit by working as a teller at Cardinal Trust Bank, which is located inside GRCHS and is run by students, for one class each day. Some of her responsibilities there include counting money and giving lunch loans in the cafeteria, earning her an official teller certificate. Every other week she also goes to Central Bank and shadows an employee there, Ms. Allen said.

But more than anything she enjoys working on the computers in the school library and until recently the one at home, which her mother and stepfather Al Noble borrowed for her.

“I like to go to AOL and Yahoo and chat with family and friends,” Miss Crawford said.

According to Anita Williams, owner of Internet service provider kyisp.net, Miss Crawford’s only wish is to have a computer of her own.

She said when the Nobles were looking at computers to purchase for her, the estimates were unreasonable. So, she approached Darrin Howard, a manager at Rent-A-Center, 103 N. Maple St., to see if he would be willing to donate a computer. Not only did the business donate one, but it is identical to the ones she is uses at school, has a spill-proof keyboard if she has an accident during a seizure and a special 17-inch monitor.

“Enjoy it, have fun and get an education,” Howard told Miss Crawford at a small ceremony with family and friends in the George Rogers Clark High School library Thursday.

Howard said the computer easily can be upgraded as technology and her needs progress.

“It’s a computer she can continue to grow with,” he said.

Mrs. Williams said she will provide Ms. Crawford with one year of free Internet service and will continue to do so while she is enrolled in online courses.

Bev Anderson, an assistant manager at Wal-Mart, Bypass Road, was on hand for the presentation with punch and Miss Crawford’s “favorite chocolate cake.”

“I want to thank everybody,” Miss Crawford tearfully said to the gathering.