Lemont High School To Remember Ellie Cuiching At Graduation Ceremony

LEMONT, IL — An online petition to honor a member of the Lemont High School Class of 2022 who died as a freshman after years of fighting a brain tumor garnered more than 3,300 signatures on Wednesday, but school officials said they never planned to exclude honoring the girl’s memory from its upcoming graduation ceremony as the petition suggested.

Ellie Cuiching died in April 2019 at the age of 14 from the brain tumor she was diagnosed with at age 6. The petition, which was organized by Jackie Wencl, stated that school officials had decided that the school would not set aside an empty chair to honor Ellie's memory and “quite possibly” would not call her name at the graduation ceremony.

However, school officials said that was not the case.

“The Class of 2022 wants to signify the presence of Ellie at their graduation by having the school put out one extra chair and announcing her name when it would have been her turn,” the petition reads. “Please sign this petition if you believe it is not only the right thing to do, but the most important part of graduation to honor Ellie since she deserved to graduate as well as every other senior at LHS.”

On Wednesday, however, Lemont High School officials posted a statement on its Facebook page stating that administrators had been made aware of the petition earlier in the day. The post said that the petition suggested the school would not be honoring Ellie at the graduation ceremony, which school officials said is inaccurate.

The statement said that a school administrator met with one of Ellie’s classmates at the beginning of May to discuss ways to remember Ellie during the graduation ceremony. During the meeting, school administrators committed to facilitating a fundraiser for the EllieStrong Foundation.

Green tassels, pins, and wristbands all will keep Ellie in her classmates’ thoughts during the ceremony, the statement said.

In January 2019, Ellie underwent her fourth brain surgery when doctors attempted to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Her mother said in a social media post that the tumor had spread like “wildfire”. A GoFundMe effort to help Ellie's family raised more than $48,000 as the Lemont community continued to support her and her family.

“My sweet baby girl was taken from us yesterday. I know that my Grandma and Grandpa have their arms wrapped around her and are taking great care of her,” Ellie’s mother Kyle wrote on a Facebook post in 2019. “Yesterday was the hardest day of my life."

Now, in what would have been her final weeks of high school, Ellie will be honored with the rest of her graduating class.

The school said that after meeting with Ellie’s family, officials decided that Ellie would be honored as part of a graduation speech, would be honored during the graduation program, will have her name read during the ceremony, and would leave a chair empty among the graduating class to honor Ellie’s memory.

“Ellie’s fight against cancer served as an inspiration, not only for her classmates and teachers but for the Lemont community as a whole,” school officials wrote in the social media post on Wednesday. “Her impact continues to be felt today among her peers.

“Lemont High School will fondly remember Ellie Cuiching as her class graduates next weekend.”

The community will also remember Ellie with a pet parade that is scheduled for Sunday in an event that will celebrate what would have been her 18th birthday, organizers said. The event is free and will honor Ellie and her love for animals. The parade is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and will go through downtown Lemont. The first 100 people to register for the event will receive an EllieStrong dog gift, organizers said.

The event page said that Friday is EllieStrong Day at Lemont High School and school officials said that members of the graduating class will also be receiving scholarships from the EllieStrong Foundation next week.

On Wednesday, Wencl wrote on the Change.org petition page that the commitment to honoring Ellie at the graduation ceremony would not have happened without the petition drive that collected all of the signatures. However, a district spokesperson told Patch in an email on Thursday that plans to do so were in place before the petition surfaced.

Wencl did not respond to a request for comment from Patch on Wednesday.

The Class of 2022 graduates from the school on Friday, May 27.