Army medic's sister: He's in good condition
CARPENTERSVILLE -- The Community Unit School District 300 Board held a moment of silence Monday night to honor the victims of Thursday's deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood.
But it wasn't just a demonstration of patriotism and support for the Texas military base. It also was a show of support for one of the Carpentersville-based district's own families.
Staff Sgt. Miguel Angel Valdivia of Elgin, seriously injured in the shootings, is the brother of two D300 employees and a recent graduate of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
"He called to let us know he was OK," sister Alma Valdivia said Tuesday, referring to the call the family received Nov. 5 from Texas. "He was in the hospital and he was OK. He was alive."
"We were still concerned because we thought he was lying to us."
Alma Valdivia, an interpreter at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville, said her parents, one of her four brothers and her sister, Araceli Valdivia, currently are with Staff Sgt. Valdivia in Texas. Araceli Valdivia is a secretary in the dean's office at Hampshire High School.
Most of the Valdivia family, including Alma, live in Elgin as well.
Staff Sgt. Valdivia is a 36-year-old U.S. Army Reserve medic who had been recalled to active duty last month. He remained hospitalized Tuesday with injuries suffered as a result of being shot three times when the alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- who like Valdivia was set to be deployed overseas -- opened fire with two handguns inside a Fort Hood building, authorities said.
The rampage left 13 people dead and 29 wounded in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the United States.
Alma Valdivia said her family decided together not to ask Staff Sgt. Valdivia questions yet about the shooting.
"We didn't want to ask because we didn't want him to relive anything that happened," she said. "Maybe later he'll want to talk about it."
She's been encouraged, however, by her sister's reports of the "nice" treatment the family has received from the Army and their soldier brother's progress, she said.
"Miguel is in good condition," she said. "He will be receiving physical therapy soon. (We) don't know for how long."
The school district added he has had trouble sleeping due to the trauma of the shootings but is otherwise faring relatively well and faces a "long but possibly full recovery."
After graduating from high school in Mexico, Staff Sgt. Valdivia joined the U.S. Army Reserves nine years ago, according to Alma Valdivia. After being called to active duty and serving a year-long deployment in Kuwait, he enrolled at NIU and hoped to become a math teacher.
He moved to California after graduation and was recalled in October to active duty. He was at Ft. Hood preparing for deployment to Iraq when the shooting occurred.
"We try to think of the positive," Alma Valdivia said. "At least he's not going to Iraq. We are glad he is safe and he is going to get better."
The school district has asked the community to show its support for the Valdivia family in one of two ways: e-mailing the sisters at their D300 e-mail addresses or sending notes to them in the care of their schools.
Alma Valdivia can be reached at alma.valdivia@d300.org or by mail at Alma Valdivia, c/o Dundee-Crown High School, 1500 Kings Road, Carpentersville, IL, 60110. Araceli Valdivia can be reached at leticia.valdivia@d300.org or by mail at Araceli Valdivia, c/o Hampshire High School, 1600 Big Timber Road, Hampshire, IL, 60140.
"We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the community and our well wishes to the Valdivia family," Superintendent Ken Arndt said at Monday night's school board meeting.
