Hanford High senior beats cancer, struggles to graduate with class

Just a few days before graduation, Grant Sandy dug through some tote boxes for a keepsake from his senior year.

He finally found it tucked away in a clear plastic bag with a biohazard symbol. Called a Hickman line, it’s a catheter that was inserted in his chest, snaking up to a vein in his neck to deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly into his bloodstream.

“God, I hated this thing,” the 18-year-old said, chuckling.

That catheter, the drugs that coursed through it and the rare form of leukemia that made it all necessary took away much of Grant’s final year at Hanford High School this year.

He spent much of the fall and all winter largely living in a Spokane hospital receiving chemotherapy but has been back in Richland since early March, his cancer officially in remission.

Hanford High rallied around him, happy to see a student triumph in a year when tragedy seemed to rock the north Richland school.

“It is nice to get a win, to see someone battle and come out on top,” said Hanford High Principal Tory Christensen.

But a few weeks ago, Grant was thrown another curveball — unless he completed enough of the remaining 2 1/2 credits he needed for graduation, he couldn’t walk with his 380 classmates.

He essentially had a month to finish classwork that would typically take a third of a school year.

Grant rose to the challenge and said he’s confident he should be able to walk across the stage at the Toyota Center on Friday — a goal he set as a milestone marking the end of his treatment.

Now, though, he’s also wants to make sure no other student in his situation has to face the same unknown.

“It was adding insult to injury,” Grant said.

Intensive treatment

Just a few weeks after classes started last fall, Grant felt perpetually ill with flu-like symptoms.

“I was very tired all the time,” he recalled. “I just thought I had a cold and wasn’t feeling well.”

But in mid-October, he woke up one day feeling particularly miserable with a fever and swollen lymph node in one leg. His mother first took him to an urgent care clinic but when his temperature spiked to 103, they sent him to the emergency room.

That’s where doctors saw an elevated white blood cell count, indicating a blood infection or leukeumia.

Further testing in Spokane led to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, a rare form of cancer that drives the body to produce massive amounts of abnormal white blood cells that interfere with red blood cell production.

Within days of his diagnosis, Grant started his first round of chemo — receiving doses every 12 hours for 12 days. While later cycles weren’t for as long, he endured days of chemotherapy followed by weeks of recovery through February.

Grant’s treatment required he stay in Spokane most of the time. The Richland School District suggested his parents enroll him in Graduation Alliance, an online high school completion program offered through the district’s alternative program, River’s Edge High School.

His parents, at first, thought Grant would easily have enough down time to work on classwork. But the chemotherapy and painkillers for the side effects took a toll.

“I soon realized he couldn’t focus, he couldn’t do it,” said his mother, Lori Sandy.

Problems came to a head in early February, when Grant was automatically unenrolled after he failed to log into the program. That was the same week he received chemo then fell in the hospital, breaking his leg. It took the family a month to get him signed up again.

“We were more worried he hadn’t eaten for a week and not that he hadn’t logged on,” said his father, Brian Sandy.

Struggle bonds school

While in school, Grant was a relatively quiet student and those who knew him said he wasn’t widely known outside his circle of friends.

But the student body rushed to his support, especially last winter after three teens connected to the school died — one by suicide, one from a sudden illness and another from cancer.

Student leaders organized fundraisers to help Grant’s family pay for medical costs and Spokane living expenses. Others provided meals.

One group even built a special shed to house the guinea pigs that Grant’s sister raised for 4-H since they couldn’t be in the house because of Grant’s compromised immune system.

“It was really touching to see how well the Hanford High School student body bonded together,” said senior Shelby Schumacher, who has known Grant since Chief Joseph Middle School. “This year has been a wake-up call.”

Since returning to Richland, Grant has reconnected with his school. He attended prom with Shelby and was the recipient of this year’s Liz Evett Award at the senior banquet for his resiliency and courage. The award is named after a Hanford High student who was supposed to graduate in spring 2009 but died in late 2008 after her cancer returned.

“We’re so glad he got to attend,” said senior and student leader Viviane Giurgiuman, 18. “There were a lot of tears.”

Paving the way for others

Despite his problems with the online learning program, Grant and his parents said they were assured by staff at Hanford High that he should be able to walk at graduation.

The 18-year-old was helped by the fact that he was no academic slouch before his diagnosis. His cumulative GPA was 3.73 and was taking a few Advanced Placement courses.

But later when school officials told the family that Grant couldn’t walk through the ceremony unless he passed all his remaining unfulfilled credits, they weren’t sure what to do. Grant said he didn’t need his diploma at graduation, just wanted to walk with his friends.

The 18-year-old began working diligently to get as much done as possible, as well as restarting an IT internship with Mid-Columbia Engineering.

Nearly all of his courses were still being done through Graduation Alliance so he worked from home, sometimes until 3 a.m. He also had a woodshop course to finish, which involved making a ukelele.

Grant and his mother approached the school board on May 24, asking that Grant be allowed to walk with his class even if he wasn’t quite finished. The board said he needed to work with district administrators and that the family could file a formal appeal.

Assistant Superintendent Todd Baddley told the Herald that Grant’s circumstances are not unique. The district has handled other instances of students under extraordinary circumstances and some were able to walk with their class.

Baddley and board President Rick Jansons said they were optimistic Grant will do just that if he can wrap up his work by today .

Otherwise, the district plans to stick by it’s graduation policy and its appeal process for considering individual cases.

The other Tri-City school districts have similar policies for specific graduation requirements to participate in graduation ceremonies. They allow exemptions for a number of reasons, including illness, but also require a formal appeal process.

With only two days remaining before Hanford High’s ceremony, Grant said he has about five tests to complete before he’s assured of being able don a purple and gold cap and gown.

He was confident it was a doable and that means he’ll have meet another goal he set for himself when he started his chemotherapy months ago. “I want to make it so it hasn’t essentially touched my life,” Grant said.

But another goal he set was to help others with cancer. Pushing the Richland district to alter its policy to be more flexible for students in similar circumstances is one way to accomplish that, he said.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Hanford High senior beats cancer, struggles to graduate with class."