SHELBY COUNTY, Ky. — As hundreds of high school seniors walk across the stage next month, one student's family is fighting for him to be honored alongside his classmates.
Chandler Poppleton died after a car wreck on June 21, 2017. The 16-year-old was in a car with two other teens when the vehicle ran off the road a street away from his home, flipping and throwing him out of the window. He was transported to the hospital by helicopter, still breathing.
"They took us right to a private room so I knew it was really bad," his mother Tina Poppleton Richie said. "That's when they told me he didn't make it. We were on talking terms, we were good. That helps. We weren't fighting. You know moms and kids do…he was a good kid he really was."
The Shelby County High School student died before his senior year, missing homecoming dances and prom night, but his mother believed the school would celebrate him during one of the most important events of a student's journey: high school graduation.
Poppleton Richie said she was excited to attend what would have been her son's graduation, making t-shirts for the family to wear and celebrating Chandler's friends who have kept in touch through the years.
"I talk to a lot of his friends," Poppleton Richie said. "They call and check on me, and I call and check on the girl who was driving the car. I can't imagine what she is going through and even the other boy who was in there. We are all family around here."
When she found out the school was not going to honor her son, Poppleton Richie said she was devastated. She said school officials told her they would not recognize her son as he did not have the credits to graduate, saying it was a policy not to recognize those who have passed away.
"Of course there wont be credits...he wasn't there to finish school," Poppleton Richie said. "I mean if he was there he would have had his credits to graduate everyone would have made sure of that."
Hoping to change the school's mind, family and friends started an online petition to save Poppleton a seat at graduation. Hundreds have signed, telling stories about Poppleton and how important honoring him is for the family.
"For them to not even acknowledge that he existed…for his friends that go there and his family…I just don't think it's right," Poppleton Richie said. "They need to change that."
Several Kentucky districts, including Spencer, Bullitt and Henry counties, said they recognize students who passed away at graduation. WHAS11 reached out to Shelby County High School, but the district has yet to respond.
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On April 22, Poppleton Richie learned her son would be remembered at the high school's graduation in late May.
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