ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Already a member? Its okay to put our stories on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. Now, here in July, we are seeing the rise of the so-called Delta variant strain of COVID-19. It had happened while Heather was at the grocery store picking up baby formula and something for dinner. The challenge was less the lack of money than the lack of people to administer it: the state education department has only a single behavorial health coordinator, Leslie Kelly, who was struck by the rising concern about youth suicide during the pandemic given that the problem had existed for years in New Mexico. The initial response is not as difficult as something thats stressful, but over time, the anhedonia, the loss of pleasure, is going to drive you down a lot more., Even before the coronavirus arrived, teen mental health was a cause for growing concern. Anyone who fit that definition had to quarantine at home, initially for two weeks, eventually only for 10 days, in line with CDC guidelines. Browse Hobbs local obituaries on Legacy.com. Students wore masks in the hallways and administrators did contact tracing for positive cases of coronavirus, but everything else went pretty much as usual, including sports. At about 1 p.m., Kooper had texted Sam on Snapchat: Love you, bro. Love you, too, Sam wrote back. So that was the only thing that I can imagine what was going through his head at that time., Hobbs is heavily conservative. No, I like it!. All weve been doing is trying to sell hope and belief to these kids that its going to happen, but at some point, theyre going to quit believing in you.. I reached Justin Davis on the phone that Saturday, after learning of Koopers death from a mother in northwestern New Mexico whose daughter had also struggled with the absence of school and sports. An entire generation between the ages of 5 and 18 has been effectively removed from society at large, wrote Maryland pediatrician Lavanya Sithanandam in The Washington Post. Enter Menu penelope loyalty quotes. Junior year was everything: He would be vying for the starting QB slot on varsity and taking a fistful of Advanced Placement courses. Lets respect the ones who wanna stay home and respect the ones who are ready to go back!!. He was a straight-A student and the quarterback for the Hobbs high school football team. For high school junior Kooper Davis that made all the difference in the world. One of the few aspects of this terrible pandemic to be grateful for is that it has taken a vastly lesser toll on children and young adults than its major precursor of last century, the flu pandemic of 1918-1920. . The novel coronavirus, by contrast, has hit the elderly the hardest. All Rights Reserved. As he left, he told Sam, in typically unabashed fashion, Love you. Love you, too, Sam responded. The younger one would ask why he couldnt get McDonalds, which she preferred, on the way back, and hed explain that traffic made it easier for him to do them in this order. This confounded Hobbs school officials, especially because they could see open schools across the border in Texas. He charmed classmates and teachers alike with his playful ebullience. There are the brown highway signs alerting travelers to historical markers tucked away in the nearby scrub. Celebrating the life of Kooper Davis Be the first to share your favorite memory, photo or story of Kooper. Discover short videos related to kooper davis hobbs nm on TikTok. Fingers crossed, and I believe in you that we can get this done.. Doctors are still uncertain whether children who survived that syndrome will experience long-term heart issues or other health problems. She had swung the other way on reopening. I fear for all the kids, he said. After being in Denver City, things seemed emptier than ever at the Hobbs high school complex in normal times, the center of communal life in Hobbs. The district, which offered daily and weekly tallies of cases on its website, determined that the vast share of transmissions seemed to be happening outside school, as research was finding to be the case in other places, too. Its crazy, said another, Carter Johnson. Thanks for signing up. I had an open relationship with my son, he said. Lt. More than just scholastic considerations were driving this. When the youth minister at church once apologized for missing one of his high school games, Kooper reassured him that it was okay, that he did not depend on an audience: I play for myself, he said. No, they said. Kooper Davis went to meet Jesus on Monday, December 7, 2020. A lot are stuck in environments they didnt choose. From Hobbs to the Texas towns of Seminole and Denver City is a half-hour drive next door, by the standards of the vast Southwestern plains. 2017-2023 Tribute Archive. Speaking about the same . The CDC found that the proportion of visits to the emergency room by adolescents between ages 12 and 17 that were mental-health-related increased 31% during the span of March to October 2020, compared with the same months in 2019. For Kooper, autumn brought no relief. If you use canonical metadata, please use the ProPublica URL. Koopers friend Zailor Lopez has noticed a change in her friends: I feel like the pandemic has kind of brought on a lot of anxiety for us kids.. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in memory of Kooper to be made to Christian Center Church. It was unnerving to watch: lots of people, few masks, no windows. 877-845-6272. No contact sports are going to be permitted this fall, she said. Recently, Fuller told me, she had received an envelope in the mail from the New Mexico education department. For student-athletes aspiring to play in college, junior year is key. But the districts push to reopen was rebuffed by the state education department. Rigby. The result of the abdication of federal leadership in 2020 was an atomization of decision-making that affected the lives and well-being of millions of people. For high school junior Kooper Davis that made all the difference in the world. Malena Moreno and her boyfriend, Pedro Gavin Garcia, were friends of Koopers from Lovington, New Mexico, where Kooper lived until he was 12. Before the event broke up, someone encouraged all of Koopers classmates to get together on stage for a group photo. Thats the frustration, he said. Initially, practices with up to 9 kids were allowed, which meant they could do some drills, but in October, the state reduced that to four students per coach. Everyone tells us to keep positive, but its been almost a year. Not only would New Mexico remain one of a handful of states to bar high school sports, but practices would now be limited to just four players per coach. On some Tuesdays and Thursdays, hed head to school for an afternoon session with the other quarterbacks, learning how to read defensive coverage. The bureaucratic oversight stunned her. The day after that, Wednesday, a fleet of empty school buses arrived at the high school from other towns, one from as far as Clovis, 130 miles away. He had won over his ninth-grade English teacher, Jennifer Espinoza, with his willingness to engage on the. I seen a lot of disappointment, he said. All he knew was that Kooper had been upset about the closures. He was an amazing big brother and had very close relationships with his younger siblings. On the way back, hed pick up some Burger King breakfast for his two younger sisters, ages 11 and 5. Michelle Lujan Grisham, took one of the most aggressive lockdown stances in the country, and issued stringent guidelines for school reopening, so stringent that Hobbs was allowed to bring back only a sliver of its students for in-person instruction. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in memory of Kooper to be made to Christian Center Church. I have no doubt that God is not done using Kooper, he said. Explore the latest videos from hashtags: #hobbsnm, #porterdavishomes . That was what the kids heard from the adults in charge, and they tried to believe it. Plus, Kooper wanted to play with his team, his friends. Your email will not be used for any other purpose. He told me that he had been running through his last interactions with Kooper, over and over, searching for a warning sign, to no avail. If you share republished stories on social media, wed appreciate being tagged in your posts. Its honestly ridiculous. They had tried to make things as nice as possible in those weeks, with an online birthday party for the two kids, and an Easter egg hunt. They do not have the same ability to vote or speak out.. He was thinking about Stanford because it was a top academic school with a good football team. Kooper was born in Hobbs NM on August 9, 2003 and spent his childhood in Lovington before moving to Hobbs with his family, Father Justin Davis, Mother Heather Davis and his younger siblings, where he was an honors student, athlete and student leader. So that was the only thing that I can imagine what was going through his head at that time. The football coach, Ken Stevens, could sense the morale plunging. They eagerly did so, several dozen of them bunched together, beaming for the camera. Justin and Heather Davis with Kooper, then a first-year student. Travis Wade Collins passed away unexpectedly at his home on Sunday, February 26th 2023. To avoid dense crowds, the band had held three performances, with several hundred people attending each. Cooper's family hopes to use his story to . Its baffling to us to figure out why he didnt come to us.. That meant all they could really do was lift weights: Kooper was despondent. The overall per-capita case numbers in Lea County were slightly higher than the three counties across the border, while the case numbers in Texas were slightly higher than in New Mexico. Obituary. Hobbs High School football player Caleb Hedrick. Justin, who works for a company that services oil-field equipment and runs a lawn care business on the side, noticed the reaction his tall, athletic son was getting in . He is survived by his father and mother, Justin and Heather Davis, his biological mother Sarah, his sister Kynlee, sister Kharley, brother Kroy, and brother Kohen, brother Tayton and sister Emara, multiple grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, teachers, administrators, and coaches. I think the big question we all have is why, and we will never know the reason why, his mother, Katrina Fuller, told an Albuquerque TV talk show in July. As it was sinking in with Kooper and his classmates that school would remain remote for the rest of the fall, they got word in early October of an additional setback on the sports front. Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. According to his toxicology report, Cooper died due to taking a synthetic pill laced with fentanyl. Kooper Davis's passing at the age of 17 on Monday, December 07, 2020 has been publicly announced by Chapel Of Hope in Hobbs, NM .Legacy invites you to offer condolences and share memories of Kooper in He was a kid who had everything, and this is where were at, said Justin. This is, after all, the region that produced Friday Night Lights.. Now Koopers death was making her reconsider again. Numerous factors had affected these outcomes, needless to say. Our sons, now 16 and 13, have had fully remote learning in their Baltimore public schools for nearly a year now. Still, the news of an 11-year-old taking his life after riding his bike to a field near his house had the power to shock in Hobbs. Watch popular content from the following creators: cl(@chelsleigh2020), mckayla(@mckayla..pierce), angelroseeee12(@roseeeeeeee_0), Lily DeSciscio(@lilymdesciscio), taylorholdridge99(@egdirdlohrolyat22) . The hope was that all this would be temporary. Overall, though, the fall was going so relatively well that many students who had chosen the remote option at the outset decided to come back to school, to the point where only about half a dozen were still learning at home. The weekends is where theyre getting it, said principal Rick Martinez. After I chatted with Sam, I walked with his father back to his office. He could think of nothing, other than the fact that he had noticed that one of Koopers grades had slipped below his norm. (To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, contact. Kooper procrastinated, as usual, but now also found it harder to focus when deadlines hit. The boys respective high school and rec-league baseball seasons were canceled last spring, but their club teams were still playing through the summer and fall. Hobbs wasnt even holding synchronous classes online for older high schoolers. This toll has led a growing number of epidemiologists, pediatricians and other physicians to argue for reopening schools as broadly as possible, amid growing evidence that schools are not major venues for transmission of the virus. Her sister Claire is a sophomore at New Mexico State University. Nationwide, deaths by suicide in the 10-to-24 age group increased by half between 2007 and 2018, a trend that has been linked to multiple factors, from the growing availability of guns to the spread of smartphones and social media. It was hard not to be impressed by the ingenuity, the determination to try to make things work, even now. He attended Mills Elementary school before moving to Roswell NM, where he graduated from Goddard High School in 1991. Even more startling was hearing from school administrators about how well the football season had gone the Denver City team made it to the second round of the playoffs and about the great event of the night prior: the holiday band concert. AddThis Utility Frame. That may have an effect over time. I knew he was pretty brave, but didnt know he was that brave, Sam said later. Kooper would chat a bit with Heather and then shower and get to work on the computer. There were counselors on hand, as well as Pastor Kinney, Sams dad. He called back five minutes later to say that yes, he had gotten the name right. But at some point in ways that werent evident to those around him, Kooper was overwhelmed. Good, she said, because Kooper would be out of the question.. We just have to weigh the good and the bad. This confounded Hobbs school officials, especially because they could see open schools across the border in Texas. Hawaii, one of the states least affected by the pandemic, put its threshold at 360 cases over a 14-day period. If any of yall know anyone unable to leave their homes, I am willing to wait in line and pick up their groceries for them, or even run simple errands. Schools in New Mexico partially reopened in February, after being mostly closed for nearly a year. Other tolls would be harder to assess, in a year of so much damage done, in so many ways. The school did not administer coronavirus tests on its own, but if a student or teacher tested positive locally, the school conducted contact tracing to determine if any other teacher or student had been exposed to them for 15 minutes or more, unmasked, within six feet. The city of Hobbs, population just under 40,000, sits on the New Mexico side, as tight to the border as a wide receivers toes on a sideline catch. The Fifth Circuit affirmed Davis and Glover's convictions and sentences. Pray for Hobbs, said the bus from Eunice. Kooper Davis, a football and basketball player then took a turn on the mike with Strickland, who plays football, wrestles, and runs track & field, set to close things up. Kids have been paying a big price for the lockdowns and for some kids its just too much to handle. There always seems like theres something new to cry about.. When the pandemic swept through the country last year, Texas was quick to reopen schools while New Mexico shut down schools and sports. I arrived in Hobbs two days later, just in time for the memorial inside Christian Center Church. These are kids without mental health issues, with good families, kids that are loved, she said. Kooper was born in Hobbs NM on August 9, 2003 and spent his childhood in Lovington before moving to Hobbs with his family, Father Justin Davis, Mother Heather Davis and his younger siblings, where he was an honors student, athlete and student leader. It has been a difficult balance to strike, on both a societal and family level. (For example, yesterday can be changed to last week, and Portland, Ore. to Portland or here.), You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. But the start of the school year arrived, and there was no school. Kooper Davis Student at Carson-Newman College Selmer, Tennessee, United States. Junior year is key for students, like Kooper, hoping to play football in college. Melanie Blanchard, Jason Scott, and Donna Sanchez, are here at our office and ready to help you buy your ( View post) Feb 15 As the school year started, she had been among the majority of teachers who were willing to return to classrooms. (Perhaps the only indicator of youth distress that is falling reports of child abuse and neglect, which dropped about 40% early in the pandemic is nonetheless worrisome because experts suspect it is the reporting that is declining, not the frequency of the abuse.). And Kooper was a great student of the quarterback position; he had the intangibles, his coaches said. You cant republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. Kinney said he and the Hobbs school superintendent had been talking a few days earlier about the need to get kids back in school. As the hot Southwestern summer dragged on, Kooper Davis and his teammates placed faith in that possibility. March 8, 2021: Due to an inconsistency in data provided by the National Governors Association, an earlier version of this article misrepresented three states COVID-19 case thresholds for reopening schools. Whats going on with those other kids?. As for teachers, there was no option: Their job was in the classroom. I dont care how good a kid you are, if you have so much time on your hands, youre going to find mischief., He told me how dearly he hoped the state stuck to its plan for a football season, truncated though it was. Allow us that opportunity., Kooper Davis had always thrived in school. And unlike in many other, more Democratic parts of the country, the citys school administrators had the support of many teachers when it came to reopening: A survey in late summer found more than 70% of teachers in favor of in-person instruction. He called you., When the service ended, people stayed on for a while to talk and hug each other. For a lot of people, the stressor that COVID represents is one that takes away good things. Whatever it takes, said Rick Martinez, the principal. You know? Theyre going to be taking care of us one day, and this is how were treating them? He noted that one student at the October protest had carried a sign that read, Im able to vote in your next election.. But when he heard the name, Stevens was stunned. Koopers teammates on the Hobbs High School football team. Despite the cold, two dozen kids, most in their early teens, had come out to the parking lot and were now doing various kickboxing exercises spaced apart and with masks on under the guidance of some martial arts instructors. But thats me being selfish. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Since Im a junior, college is starting to cross my mind, and without this essential year of learning, I feel completely unprepared for college. The stage was dominated by balloons in black and yellow, the Hobbs High colors, and large white letters and numbers, aglow with lights, that spelled KD 10, Koopers jersey number. But the primary concern from a public health standpoint has been the role that children and young adults might play in transmitting the disease to others. For Hobbs and the rest of Lea County, population 70,000, that meant no more than five new cases per day in the whole county, Statewide in New Mexico, the restrictions resulted in zero high schools or middle schools reopening anywhere in the state. She said her friends, parents, job and soccer practice have helped her cope. We need to be back on the field. He missed football so much that, on some Friday evenings, he headed across the state line to Texas to watch a game. Weve got districts 30 miles away doing it safely, associate superintendent Gene Strickland said. The Texas Education Agency was letting districts make the decision. This startled me, but not nearly as much as what she told me next: that soon after her own illness, her partner of 18 years, Abe, had died of what had strongly resembled COVID-19, though his initial test had come back negative.