Teen Ate Lunch Alone For Years, Until Student Council Stepped In: S.C. High School Featured On CBS

“A lot of times at lunch, i’ll text Andrew. I said, ‘Are you eating with anyone? And he said ‘No’. And I sat at my desk at work and I just prayed I said, ‘Lord, please send somebody to eat with him.” – Kay Kirby

CBS News launched a series called, “A More Perfect Union”. The goal of this series, according to CBS News, is to show us “what unites us as Americans is far greater than what divides us.” We couldn’t think of a better time than now for this news network to produce a series on unity. What makes this series even greater is a feature story on a South Carolina high school, a teen who ate lunch by himself for years, and a council of students who decided do something about that. CBS This Morning Saturday’s cohost, Dana Jacobson went all the way to Boiling Springs High School in South Carolina, to find out how these students aimed to change one kid’s life.

Andrew Kirby spent his freshman year eating alone, and like so many kids in high school, wasn’t a social butterfly. Also, with his neurological disorder and after undergoing several major surgeries throughout his life, it was slightly difficult for him to make friends.

“A lot of times at lunch, I’ll text Andrew,” explained Kay Kirby, his mom. “I said, ‘Are you eating with anyone? And he said ‘No’. And I sat at my desk at work and I just prayed I said, ‘Lord, please send somebody to eat with him.”

Well, we all know God answers prayers, and it came in the form of a special student council who noticed Andrew eating by himself, and asked if he could join them. On the first day of school of his sophomore year, Andrew finally had a crew to sit and enjoy lunch.

“If we were sitting by ourselves, we would want someone to sit with us so we didn’t want kids to sit by themselves,” said the student council members. “Everyone needs to have someone and anyone can be a help with that.”

Andrew’s mother explained how it’s great to know in this day, that teenagers still took the time to be observant, and noticed a fellow student who simply may have needed a friend. She stated, “They weren’t being in their own clique, they weren’t being selfish, they took their time to reach out to somebody who might be different. An you know, you never know what a child is going through – they maybe have a bad home life, maybe they’re depressed, and there’s a kid sitting by themselves and they noticed that. The peace I have now at lunch I don’t feel like I need to text him and check on him.”

Just think, how schools could independently destroy bullying, or help defeat depression with teens, or perhaps some other horrible incident, by simply building councils of caring children who’s job is to care for another student who may need a friend or someone to talk to. Kudos to Boiling Springs High School for making the news and going viral for something good that happening in South Carolina’s schools.