The 8-year-old boy who was critically injured in the Highland Park massacre has returned to school in a wheelchair to resume his classes.
Cooper Roberts, 8, was one of the victims shot by a rifle-wielding gunman at the Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
After the bloody Fourth of July shooting that left seven people dead and 48 injured, Roberts was rushed to the hospital where doctors found out that he was paralyzed from the waist down because his spinal cord was severed by a bullet.
While the boy’s grim prognosis is that he will likely never walk again, he has since the horrifying incident shown great improvement and “remarkable” recovery.
Now, the boy’s family also confirmed that brave Cooper already returned to school in a wheelchair to resume his studies.
“We were so nervous, we couldn’t sleep the night before his first day back. We cried in the parking lot as he wheeled himself into the school, cried as we pulled out of the parking lot,” parents Keely and Jason Roberts said.
While the bittersweet moment was something no parent ever expects or imagines, the 8-year-old allegedly loved his first day back in school.
“We were just a mess! He loved every minute, and his exact words were, ‘If I had not been shot, paralyzed, and had to be in a wheelchair, it would have been a perfect school day, but it was a really great day! I loved it,’” his mom and dad added.
The parents also explained that the transition back to school will be done at a proper pace as the boy continues his physical and psychological recovery.
“It has been one of the most humbling and hopeful experiences of our lives to watch our precious 8-year-old, who has had so much cruelly and violently ripped away from him, his life needlessly and forever changed, so cheerfully and excitedly count down the days leading to his return to school,” Mr. and Mrs. Roberts expressed.
While the progress has so far been amazing, they also admitted their son still suffers from constant fears and anxiety over the shooting and the consequences his paralysis left on him for the rest of his life.
“These run across his mind and ours literally all day long, like an endless reel of worry. We all are learning how to cope with these components of our new reality,” they added.
Our thoughts are with the Roberts family and all other victims of the Highland Park shooting.
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