Students Who Help Lying Teacher's Aide Treated To Sweet Surprise
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MESQUITE (CBSDFW.COM) - There was a sweet surprise today for some students in Mesquite. It was less than two weeks ago when a former teachers aide who lied about having cancer duped students, faculty and staff at Wilkinson Middle School.
Today the Mesquite Police Department set out to show how much they "admire the giving attitude" or those at school and that meant only one thing – snow cones!
A Sergeant with the department came up with the idea to bring take an ice truck to the school to whip up snow cones for everyone. Along with the brightly colored sweet treats came the encouragement to never give up.
"The last thing we wanted to have happen was this bad incident happen and it sour the kids from helping other people," explained Lieutenant Brian Parrish. "We want to make sure that they understand that it's a good thing to help other people. Sometimes a bad person will pop up in their life [but] they need to overcome that."
Starting at 10:00 a.m. students began filing in line to snap up the snow cones. They wore big smiles as they met Mesquite police officers and were praised for trying to help someone in the community.
Wilkinson students helped raise more than $11,000 for former teacher's aide Kevin MaBone who lied about having cancer. Money from the GoFundMe account is being returned to everyone who donated.
According to reports MaBone told school administrators he needed a few days off to have surgery for prostate surgery, when the 56-year-old actually was taking time off to face federal court sentencing in West Virginia. He was found guilty of stealing from his last job -- a job corps center in Charleston.
In addition to the money a local business donated a used car to help MaBone get back and forth for cancer treatments. Police have taken back that car and will be returning it to the business.
MaBone has been charged with theft and remains locked up in West Virginia. As for the students - the principal says they already have more service projects lined up.
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