Fargo Teachers Shave Heads for Sarah Barnum, Colleague With Cancer in Remission

Barnum had breast cancer and is now in remission

FARGO, N.D. — A Discovery Middle School music teacher’s battle with breast cancer is nearing the end with her cancer now in remission.

Students and other teachers are supporting her for the final push – one lock of hair at a time.

Students are packing the gym inside Discovery Middle School, but not for an average assembly.

Music teacher Sarah Barnum has been battling breast cancer over the past few months, yet that didn’t stop her from teaching.

“I made a choice at the beginning of treatment to be at school as much as possible because my students have given me so much support,” Barnum said.

Students and staff raised almost $4,500 for her cancer treatments, but money isn’t the only thing they’re giving.

Some teachers are giving up their luscious locks and shaving their heads for Barnum.

This idea came about when one of the teachers made it an incentive to donate for her medical bills.

“He put the challenge out to the students: if you can raise $3,000, we’ve got about 15 teachers who will volunteer to shave their heads, and so the kids stepped up to the plate and they did more than $3,000,” Barnum said. “It was amazing.”

Even though some were not that willing to give up their hair, all of the teachers say they don’t mind almost going bald if it’s for a good cause.

“I might keep it this way,” said Jon Lucht, the school’s band director. “I don’t even want to fix it. I have nobody to impress anymore, so I think this will be fun, you know, care-free.”

Barnum says seeing all these teachers give back in this way makes her feel very proud of every one of them.

“How many times in your lives do you get to just have pure joy?” Barnum said. “And it was just so much fun. There was the little anxiousness on the faces of some of those teachers, but to watch the students just take the bull by the horns and go for it, it was just really exciting.”