BUCKSPORT, Maine — Local news outside the classrooms and hallways of Bucksport High School has been dominated by the announcement that Verso paper mill will close before the end of the year.
But inside the school walls, there is a different story to tell, and students and others said last week it is a really good one. At the end of September, high school seniors nominated classmates to be shortlisted for homecoming king and queen. One of the candidates selected by her peers was Geneva Langevin. The 18-year-old life skills student has “a few labels,” according to her mom, Sherry Langevin of Bucksport. Geneva is fairly non-verbal, lacks gross motor skills and has cognitive delays. She does not take mainstream classes.
But she loves her high school and her classmates, whom she greets every morning with a wave and a big, bright smile.
“She’s a sweet, sweet girl. She always says ‘Hi’ to me,” senior football captain Matthew Stewart, 17, said of Geneva. “She puts a smile on anybody’s face. I definitely think a lot of people wanted her to win. She definitely deserved it.”
And that’s how the vote went. Geneva, called “G,” was chosen by the high school seniors to be Bucksport High School’s homecoming queen. She went to her first football game and wore her crown and a blue dress to that night’s dance.
“I love it. I love my class. I love the gym with all the kids,” Geneva said with the help of a sign language interpreter. “I got a crown and wore it all night. I felt happy.”
Principal Dan Clifford said Geneva got a standing ovation from the crowd when she was named homecoming queen. And when she was on the dance floor, students made a circle and danced with her.
“It was really fun to watch,” he said, adding he believes it is the first time a special needs student was named homecoming queen at Bucksport High School. “The kids were so genuine and so excited for her.”
Sherry Langevin wrote to the Bucksport Enterprise weekly newspaper after homecoming, thanking the seniors and letting the community know what they did.
“I thought that those kids were very generous and unselfish in their thinking,” she said last week. “I thought it was a very sweet thing and a very inclusive thing for students in her class to do. I am really touched by all the students here. I am always skeptical when I hear ‘There’s no bullying here.’ But all along, I have seen that it is true in this school system. People have treated her very kindly.”
Jack Cyr, the homecoming king, said the seniors had fun planning to have Geneva win the title of homecoming queen.
“It looked like (she was having) the time of her life. We just wanted to do something nice for her,” he said. “It really made her day.”
Sherry Langevin said it made her day, too.
“I said thank you to them, for being kind to her, for acknowledging her as a person and treating her in a kind and friendly fashion, whether at school or out in the community,” she said. “I just told them that their behavior resonated with others. When you are kind to somebody, it affects their life.”
Cyr said choosing Geneva has had a positive effect on the 87-student senior class.
“Honestly, I think it made everyone’s year,” he said.