Topekan dedicates 'buddy bench' to school in honor of two students who passed

TOPEKA (KSNT) - A Topeka elementary school is remembering two students who lost their lives.

After seeing a picture of 9-year-old Peyton Tyler on the news, one community member had a gut feeling that she couldn't get rid of.

“I just kept thinking about her, and I thought, 'I don't know what I can do'," Jay Patterson, a Topeka resident said. "I just called the school and I said, 'you know, I really want to do, in memorial, something for Peyton."

Tyler's father is accused of killing her, her sister and their mother in a house fire earlier this year. Tyler attended Lowman Hill Elementary, the same school where another student, Kaden Everhart, passed away at home two years earlier.

The school’s principal came up with a way to keep their memories alive.

“I thought, they were so friendly, that having something in their memory of a buddy bench," Jennifer Norton, Lowman Hill Elementary School principal. "When you're lonely and you need a friend, you sit there, and the other kids know to go and make a friend."

On Thursday, Dec. 7, the families of Tyler and Everhart, as well as Lowman Hill staff, were able to come and see the lasting legacy that will keep Tyler and Everhart alive in people's memories.

“I know that the faculty will always think of the students that we lost," Norton said. "And going forward, they will remember the kindness of a stranger that made the buddy bench possible as well as the students being able to make those friendships and encourage each other when they might have a sad day."

“When a family can maybe see that maybe they're not forgotten, or that they're special," Patterson said, "I don't know, I think, I think maybe that helps."

Both Patterson and Norton know the bench will be used by many, and keep the kindness of Tyler and Everhart around for years to come.