A Bell of Hope:A School Nurse’s Care and a Student’s Courage at Decker Elementary
Para traducción al español, haga clic en el botón traducir en la esquina inferior derecha de su pantalla.
The bell that rang through the Decker Elementary library during a late afternoon in January wasn’t calling students back to class. It was celebrating something far bigger.
Surrounded by classmates, teachers, family, and a room full of cheers and hugs, fifth grader Emilio Zuniga rang the bell to mark the end of nearly three years of cancer treatment. It was a moment filled with joy, relief, and pride and one that began with the watchful care of Decker Elementary’s school nurse, Gabriela “Gabby” Cerda.
Back in October 2023, what started as a routine visit to the nurse’s office quickly became something more.
“He came in a couple of times within about a week with the same complaint, his throat hurting,” Cerda said. “The first time there was no fever, but the second time there was. I also noticed his lymph nodes were swollen. That’s when I knew I needed to call his mom.”
Cerda didn’t brush it off as a simple cold. She trusted her instincts, followed up, and kept checking in, making multiple calls to Emilio’s mother, Maria Rios, urging her to monitor his symptoms closely.
“At first, I thought, ‘The nurse is just worrying too much,’” Rios said. “But she kept calling, checking on him, making sure we were paying attention.”
That weekend, while out shopping for a Halloween costume, Emilio fainted. Rios rushed him to the hospital. Soon after, the diagnosis came back, cancer.
“When she told me, my heart just dropped,” Cerda said. “But I also knew we caught this early. That mattered.”
What followed was a long and difficult road for Emilio and his family, months of chemotherapy, hospital stays, side effects, and setbacks. Through it all, Cerda stayed connected, checking in, celebrating small victories, and reminding Emilio and his family that the Decker community was standing with them.
“They caught it at a point where treatment could really help,” Cerda said. “That gave us all hope.”
For Emilio, that hope showed up in the people around him.
“My friends, my teachers, they helped me stay happy and try to be happy,” he said.
And on Tuesday, that support filled the room as he rang the bell, a sound that marked not just the end of treatment, but the strength it took to get there.
Cerda, who previously worked in hospitals before becoming a school nurse, said this experience reminded her just how powerful the role of a school nurse can be.
“I never imagined that working in a school, I would help identify something this serious,” she said. “But this is why we’re here, to care, to notice, and to speak up for our kids.”
Emilio left his classmates with a message of his own.
“Stay strong. Stay proud. Don’t give up. Try your best,” he said.
He will continue seeing doctors regularly, with checkups every six months for now and eventually once a year. But on this day, he wasn’t a patient. He was a student, a hero, and a reminder of what happens when courage meets care.