07/11/2025
I took this photo last week looking over the fence from the backyard where I grew up at 2708 S. Minnesota looking across the canal and I-135 (to the east) at the Sowers schoolyard. Its a wide-angle shot, but you may be able to zoom in and see more detail. The last of the three American Elms at the north end of the playground can be seen behind the light pole. I think the reason it has survived Dutch Elm Disease was because it was so isolated from other Elms.
They added a gymnasium/cafeteria at the north end of the building and removed the annexed several years back (maybe around 2012 - just guessing). It has been a Special Day school since the early 1990s. It was for Behavior Disorder (BD) high school students first and then around the time they added the gym the district decided to put the BD students back in the regular schools and repurposed the school for Emotionally Disturbed (ED) students. I taught PE at Sowers in the east annex as a long-term substitute during the '92-'93 school year. [The year of the school shooting where a female student brought a small .22 revolver to school and shot a girl a couple times and hit a boy that was down the hall in the calf. A female teacher who was down the hall felt a bullet pass through her hair. The shooter also shot one of her own fingers that must have gotten in front of the barrel. If I remember right, the girl who was shot may have gotten a bullet in her liver. She was in critical condition and was in the hospital for several months.]
Post by Roger Neugent
