Spokane students honor late classmate with candlelight vigil

SPOKANE, Mo. — Students and faculty at Spokane High School are mourning the loss of one of their classmates and students with a candlelight vigil.

Alex Haro, his father Salvador, his mother Silvia, and his brother Salvador Jr were all killed in a propane explosion at their home in Goodhope.

Their friends and family gathered at Spokane High School Thursday night where Alex and Salvador attended school. One of Alex’s good friends Lucia Esqueda said it is not the same now that Alex is gone.

“It’s just really sad. I just, I never would have assumed or thought I would lose him in this way,” Esqueda said. “It’s, It’s tragic. I don’t, I don’t think I’ll ever recover.”

The crowd on the track was filled with members of the community who gathered to remember the Haro family. The vigil included a performance from the band and the choir, two groups Alex was heavily involved in.

“The most wonderful kid I’ve ever known,” Esqueda said. “And everyone loved him. I don’t I don’t know a single person who disliked Alex.”

“Our band directors told me you could tell he wasn’t here at graduation because he was a vital member of the band playing the trombone,” said Spokane High School Principal Kent Doyle. “He’s a vital member of the choir who sang at graduation.”

Principal Doyle said with a school this small, the loss of a student affects the entire building.

“Tuesday was a day of grieving,” said Principal Doyle. “There wasn’t a lot that got done inside the building Tuesday other than keep Alex in mind, you know, in the hearts of the kids.”

“The majority of us didn’t even go to class,” Esqueda said. “We stayed right here at this locker, and we just, we cried and we were all together.”

Alex was one week away from finishing his sophomore year of high school, and Principal Doyle told me he would have been inducted into the National Honor Society Thursday night.

“He had a lot left to do,” Esqueda said. “It wasn’t his time.”

Members of the community are selling t-shirts and have set up a GoFundMe to help Norma Haro, Alex’s sister who was in Chicago when the explosion happened with funeral expenses.

“I love him. I love him so much,” Esqueda said. “And I’ll never I’ll never get the chance to say it again.”

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