Suri Dao

Adopted from China.

Tessa Berns.

Silver and Ivory.

Colorado Spelling Bee

Berns was raised in Denver. In 2011, Berns placed third in the 10-year-old girls category of a Denver-area kids’ triathlon, and in 2014 Berns won another bronze in the Colorado State Spelling Bee.

Berns at Denver School of the Arts, a progressive public magnet school serving grades six to 12.

a vegetarian who studied creative writing, wrote fantasy-genre fiction that was “very well done,” and got into Magic the Gathering, a tabletop game. Berns was “incredibly smart” and “obsessively drawn and compelled to ideas,” but was also bullied in school.

“She cared a lot about internal consistency and formal logical arguments,”

“There are a lot of ways in which her beliefs cross traditional political lines and traditional social divides.”

Another former friend recalled that Berns, in high school, intensely sought answers about the world and their own identity. For a senior year creative writing project, Berns wrote of their admiration for Caitlyn Jenner, who had come out as a transgender woman when Berns was in the ninth grade.

“That summer I did my nails and wore a skirt and a pretty white blouse, and I pretended to be a man cross-dressing for the first time,” Berns wrote. “I knew, then, that I needed to become this: someone who was. Someone who was beautiful, even if no one else understood.”

During more than two years in custody, Dao’s mental health has seemed to deteriorate. At one point, a judge suspended the proceedings while doctors determined whether they were able to participate in their own defense.

Jail officials have at times resorted to force-feeding Dao, while a nurse sat outside their cell 24 hours a day, on suicide watch. Attorneys reported Dao’s self-harm, including biting their wrists and suffering from delusional thoughts that led them to stick objects in their eyes.

https://frontporchne.com/recognitions-three-local-students-win-national-merit-scholarships/