Perfect attendance not easy for Jonesville High senior

By ANNA BROWN Staff Writer

Union Daily Times

May 7, 2003 article from uniondailytimes.com archives

?JONESVILLE - While at the hospital being treated for injuries he received during a fight with armed robbers, Alan Lancaster was offered a doctor's excuse so he could miss school. "I said, No, I've got perfect attendance, I can't do that," said Alan, now a senior who will graduate from Jonesville High May 23. "I took the police report to school with me so I wouldn't have to keep answering the same questions."

The 18-year-old son of Gaye and Craig Lancaster, Alan hasn't missed a day of school since second grade. He missed days in kindergarten and first grade because he had pneumonia, but he made them up through homebound instruction and those absences were erased from his record. And Alan hasn't been just keeping a seat warm while he has been at Jonesville High. His list of achievements is long. He is ranked third in his class and has a GPA of 4.654 on a 5.0 scale.

He has been named to "Who's Who Among American High School Students" four years in a row. He has been a United States Achievement Academy All American Scholar for four years, a member of the National Beta Club for four years, a member of the National Honor Society for two years, and has lettered in academics, track, football and band for four years.

He participated in the Teacher Cadet Program, was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for four years, was a Junior Rotarian, a member of the Engineering Team, is a USC Scholar, won the Graham Family Scholarship, is a Gardner-Webb Scholar, earned a Clemson Scholar $15,000 Coca-Cola Scholarship and a Life Scholarship.

He was named to the Herald-Journal All-Academic Team in 2002 and 2003, was named a Herald-Journal All-Star Athletics and Academics and was the Jonesville High School Player of the Week in football for five weeks. He plans to attend USC-Union this fall and eventually transfer to the Columbia campus to complete his degree. He is considering a career in corporate fitness and may later become a physical therapist.

Attending school without missing a day got to be a habit as he entered high school, Alan said. "About the ninth or tenth grade I said I was going to break it, stay out and do some things I needed to do," Alan said. "But then I figured that I had come this far, why stop now?" Joel Taylor, a teacher and coach at Jonesville High School and Alan's Sunday School teacher for two years at West Springs Baptist, said Alan is committed to whatever project he takes on. He said Alan also is active in church and works with the sound system there. "He's always working on something," Taylor said. "He is always dedicated to whatever he puts his mind to."

For the past two years, Alan has worked at Pizza Inn at Cedar Springs. He also has never missed a day of work and has been promoted to management training. Brooks Hammett, manager of Pizza Inn, said Alan is an excellent worker. "I really don't know what the store would do without him," Hammett said. "He's pretty much the backbone of the store with the cooks. He is very mature for his age. Everyone here looks up to him."

In March 2002 near closing time, Alan and five other employees including the manager were cleaning up the restaurant. The back door was left open after someone carried out trash. Two masked men - one armed with a shotgun - walked in. The armed man forced Alan and the other employees except the manager into an office. The other man told the manager to open the cash register for him. Alan and the rest of those herded into the office felt sure they would be killed. Alan decided he was going to do something. The robber told the employees to empty their wallets and purses. Alan pulled out all the money he had  $2.

To get the robber's attention, he made a remark about being broke. The robber looked down and Alan slammed him against a wall and seized the shotgun from him. Alan cocked the gun and attempted to fire it at one of the robbers, but it wasn't loaded. The two robbers came after Alan and he threw the gun aside. During the brawl, one of the men picked up the stock from the gun, which had broken, and hit Alan in the head with it. The two robbers tripped Alan and fled in a white car. No arrests have been made in the case.

Alan called his mother, who insisted he go to the hospital and be checked out. His boss agreed. At Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, doctors and staff members told Alan they admired him for thinking of others instead of himself. He turned down the offer of the doctor's excuse and arrived home to his anxious mother around 3 a.m. His father, who works nearby at Pizza Inn, had already checked on him.

Gaye Lancaster said she wasn't surprised her son wanted to go to school that morning. There have been plenty of other times when he went to classes not feeling well. "There were times when he went to school and I don't know how he held his head up," she said. Alan has always beat the odds, Mrs. Lancaster said. When he was born he had ingested amniotic fluid and suffered from Highland Membrane Syndrome. Doctors told the Lancasters Alan likely would be mildly retarded or autistic and would always be small in size.

Instead, he walked when he was seven months old, became a tall, strapping athlete and has always been a high academic achiever. "He always tried," Mrs. Lancaster said. "He always set really high goals for himself." Alan thanks his parents for their support. "They helped set the basis," he said. "They wanted me to do good and I just took over from there."

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