BY MELANIE SCHROEDER
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While battling Crohn’s disease, sophomore Alexa Becker was able to stay on top of her school work due to support and instruction from English teacher Denise Weis.

Becker ended her time on Roseville Joint Union High School District’s Home/Hospital Instruction program and returned to Roseville High School last week. During the first half of spring term, Weis was Becker’s assigned instructor. They developed a strong relationship despite the circumstances.

“This is the only situation I’ve known her in, but we got along fine,” Weis said. “It was easy to talk to her, it seemed to be easy for her to ask questions, so I think in terms of that our relationship was very workable.”

Becker’s Crohn’s disease weakens her immune system, making her unable to attend school often.

“It’s a disease in your intestines and it’s inflammatory so I can’t have certain foods and I get sick really easily,” Becker said. “I have no immune system.”

Weis enjoys working with the program because she likes helping students like Becker.

“I’ve been doing it for probably ten or fifteen years at least and sometimes things happen with kids where they can’t be in the regular school setting and nobody really wants those kids to fall through the cracks or get behind,” Weis said. “It just seemed like a really good way to help kids out that are in need of some assistance.”

Now, Becker has been playing catch-up and trying to balance school and staying healthy.

“School is hard because I’m in AP classes but my teachers are really good about that but it makes school hard and I get tired really easily and sick really easily,” Becker said.

Becker appreciates the sense of normalcy and guidance of being back on campus.

“My favorite part about being back at school is being able to get help when needed and also getting to learn rather than figure things out myself,” Becker said.

According to Becker, coming back was nerve-wracking, but teachers had many helpful tools to help her. She used Google Translate to help specifically with her foreign language class.

“For French, it was pretty helpful because it sounded stuff out for me so I knew how to pronounce it,” Becker said.