From tears to college degree: story captured girl's emotional first day of school
- August 19, 2010
Seventeen years ago, a 5-year-old girl wailed as she leaned her head against the hip of her towering father and wrapped her right arm around his leg.
Her father placed a gentle hand on his daughter's shoulder.
And he kept moving forward.
It was Brittney Salter's first day of kindergarten at Brookside Elementary, and the tiny girl was terrified as she took her first, tentative steps toward the future. The tender moment was captured in a front-page article and photograph that appeared in The Record on Aug. 31, 1993.
"I'm just going out here, Pumpkin," Roosevelt Salter told his little girl, his way of saying he was leaving her for a few hours.
"Noooooooo!" Brittney shrieked.
Some things don't change.
Back then, Brittney was one of about 600 kindergartners starting school in 8,000-student Lincoln Unified School District. On Wednesday, as Lincoln Unified began the 2010-11 school year, the numbers were much the same.
And so were the emotions for many.
As was the case with Brittney 17 years ago, there probably were a few small children at each elementary school Wednesday who dissolved into tears as they prepared to emerge from the protective cocoons of their toddler years.
Brittney Salter learned an important lesson on that wrenching day long ago, a lesson that is learned by children every year as they begin their academic careers.
Everything's going to be fine.
Brittney was. It took her no more than 60 minutes to feel better. She made it through kindergarten. She went on to complete eighth grade at Brookside. She graduated from Lincoln High. And this spring, she graduated from California State University, East Bay, with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.
It all began on that scary first day at Brookside.
"I really didn't know what was going on," Brittney, 22, recalled this week. "I knew I was going to school. I didn't know what school was. I saw a whole bunch of kids. I was scared and crying. ... All I wanted was my dad to stay. And he wouldn't even stay."
Roosevelt, now 62, said, "It was hard. But I knew she had to be there. I said, 'Brittney, you've got to stay here. This is school now.' It was awkward, having a child crying and you have to leave."
But she met people as a kindergartner whom she still knows to this day.
Through the years, she became president during high school of a group that raises funds for college scholarships. She tutored fifth-graders. She learned to play the piano. And a year from now, she hopes to enroll as a first-year law student at the University of San Diego.
Graduating from college was a big deal. There was a party for family and friends at the Salter home in north Stockton. An aunt made a suggestion: Re-enact that scene from nearly 17 years earlier.
Roosevelt put his arm around Brittney's shoulder. Brittney no longer clung desperately to the man she views as "her big teddy bear" but she rested a hand on Roosevelt's shoulder. Brittney's mother, Michelle, took the photograph. The new and old images of father and daughter were used on a thank-you card to those who gave Brittney graduation gifts.
How did she make it through from 1993 to 2010?
"Emotional support," Brittney said.
"Support," Roosevelt said.
Just as at the beginning of the journey, there were tears again for Brittney as she completed the rite of passage with receipt of her diploma.
"I was just happy it was over," she said, "and I made it through college."
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