Memorial H.S. earns "Green Schools" designation, plans greenhouse in honor of slain grad
TULSA — Memorial High School in Tulsa is the state's newest Green School.
The statewide program encourages students to get involved in helping to reduce their school's environmental footprint.
To earn the designation, and a flag that goes with it, students must investigate how their school performs when it comes to efforts to protect the environment through energy, waste and recycling, water, transportation or environmental quality.
The Memorial students who participated are all part of the special education program there and worked to create a sensory garden and a plastics recycling program at the high school.
Teacher Janet Parker says the hands-on work provides important life skills for the students. "It leads them into future jobs," said Parker. "It gives them job skills, feelings of accomplishment, also caring for their environment and making the world a better place."
One person who made the world a better place for Memorial's special education students was Kayla Ferrante.
She was a peer tutor at the school and planned to make special education her life's work.
Ferrante was shot and killed the day after she graduated from Memorial High School in 2012.
Her family has donated $10,000 to the school's special education program because of her love for the students.
Parker says they plan to use that money to help fund a new greenhouse at the school in her memory.
They hope to have it up and running sometime next school year.
