KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
—
Three years after teacher Jamie Craig was killed, Wyandotte High School honored her memory at its annual Jamie Craig Legacy Food Truck Festival — the renamed version of what was once called the last day of school festival.
This is the festival’s fourth year, but the third year it has honored Craig.
The festival featured games, music and resources for students, including a resource row of nonprofits and organizations.
It took 35 volunteers to make the event happen.
District Attorney Mark Dupree, a Wyandotte High School alum, donated $5,000 for a scholarship in Craig's name.
"She's still alive in that school and I knew God had something good planned for her, and I just want the best for those students too," Kelly Gray, Craig's mother, said.
Gray has been grieving alongside her daughter's school since Craig was killed in 2023.
Kansas City, Missouri, police officers found Craig dead on April 29, 2023, in an apartment near Missouri and Woodland avenues in Kansas City, Missouri.
Craig, 44, suffered apparent trauma, but no other details were released.
A boy, who was 14 years old when he killed Craig, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter earlier this year in Jackson County Juvenile Court.
The boy's name was not released because he is a juvenile.
A judge ruled the teen's case would be kept in juvenile court, and he was committed to the Division of Youth Services following his plea.
Sheyvette Dinkens, vice president of the Wyandotte High School PTSA and a former teacher at the school, worked with Craig on the first festival the year before Craig died. She helped plan this year's event as well.
"It was initially called the last day of school festival, but then when she passed away, we made it her namesake in her honor," Dinkens said.
Dinkens said Craig's work in drug prevention and restorative justice made her death especially painful.
"It was one of those things that she had been working for, this preventative work for this restorative justice and this community of health, and then she passes in the same way of the things she's working on," Dinkens said. "When we think about the way Ms. Craig passed — it was traumatic and we were all grieving — and this is a way for it to be a positive thing that she continued to do things no matter what.”
Among those offering resources at the festival was Mary Walter, a licensed financial counselor representing Azura Credit Union, a nonprofit that started as an educational credit union and has represented school districts for a long time.
"Part of what I do is help students prepare for some of those big costs that are gonna come up in their life in the next few years," Walter said. "We're here to give that information so that you can start off on the right foot in life, rather than making some of the mistakes that a lot of us make in the beginning just because we didn't have the info that we needed. If you're just given the information, people do amazing with it once they know what they need to know.”
Graduating senior Germya Sanford, who helped plan the event as part of the PTSA, was part of the last class to walk the halls while Craig taught there.
Sanford, who is also an athlete and is going to school to play basketball, joined the PTSA because she wanted to be more involved and reach out more.
"When I met Ms. Craig, I was a freshman," Sanford said. "I'm from Mississippi, and everything was different, so she helped me figure out where my classes were at.”
The year Craig died, she started a Youth Court, driven by her passion for restorative justice.
Sanford serves as vice president of the Youth Court, and the program inspired her to pursue an EMT certification and a degree in criminal justice.
"I'm vice president for the Youth Court,” Sanford said. “We just keep doing it. Keep doing mock trials, keep doing real trials just for her. Ms. Craig meant a lot to us. And she meant a lot to the community because they're steady coming out with us and just prepare for this event and celebrate her.”
Craig's family, who KSHB 41's Alyssa Jackson spoke with in 2023, attended Thursday's festival, including her now 6-year-old son Jackson.
Gray said the family has attended every year and that the school community has welcomed them with open arms.
She added that the family wants to continue to attend in the future and that they made t-shirts to wear.
"She had a purpose, and we see that through Jackson,” Gray said. “He is so much like her, and he is living a good life. She loved those kids so much that she wanted a better future for them. Her life was all about those students — that was her passion, was loving those kids.”
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
—
