Fifth Grade Boys Shave Heads to Save Classmate’s Face : Cancer: Fellow students didn’t want friend to feel out of place when chemotherapy caused hair to fall out.

In Mr. Alter’s fifth-grade class, it’s impossible to tell which boy is undergoing chemotherapy. Nearly all the boys are bald. Thirteen of them shaved their heads so a sick buddy wouldn’t feel out of place.

“If everybody has their head shaved, sometimes people don’t know who’s who. They don’t know who has cancer, and who just shaved their head,” said 11-year-old Scott Sebelius, one of the baldies at Lake Elementary School.

For the record, Ian O’Gorman is the sick one.

Doctors recently removed a malignant tumor from his small intestine, and a week ago he started chemotherapy to treat the disease, called lymphoma.

“Besides surgery, I had tubes up my nose. I had butterflies in my stomach,” said Ian, who’ll have eight more weeks of chemotherapy in an effort to keep the cancer from returning.

Ian decided to get his head shaved before all his hair fell out in clumps. To his surprise, his friends wanted to join him--in a move reminiscent of the 1992 U.S. Olympic volleyball players, who shaved their heads in a show of solidarity with a bald teammate.

“The last thing he would want is to not fit in, to be made fun of, so we just wanted to make him feel better and not left out,” said 10-year-old Kyle Hanslik.

Kyle started talking to other boys about the idea, and then one of their parents started a list. They all went to the barber shop together.

“It’s hard to put words to,” said Ian’s father, Shawn, choking back tears as he talked about the boys. “It’s very emotional to think about kids like that who would come together, to have them do such a thing to support Ian.”

The boys’ teacher, Jim Alter, was so inspired that he, too, shaved his head.

“You’re showing the world and the country what kids can do. People think kids are going downhill. This is the best,” Alter said.

He added that Ian’s illness has proved to be one of the most important lessons of his class. “We’ve had some lessons on cancer cells, different kinds of cancer and of course, chemotherapy,” said Alter, who calls the boys his “little bald eagles.”

Ian doesn’t like to talk about the cancer much or the pain, but his friends know what’s happened.

“I’ve been there with him in the hospital, and I’ve seen what he’s been through, all the needles, all the throwing up, how he couldn’t walk and everything. It’s like torture,” said Kyle, who likes to ride bicycles with Ian after class.

Ian left the hospital March 2, and doctors told his mother, Heather O’Gorman, that 70% to 90% of children with the same disease at this stage have achieved long-term survival. Once the doctors are through with the chemotherapy, they will monitor him for another two years for a recurrence. If there is none, doctors would pronounce him cancer-free.

Although Ian has lost 20 pounds and is pale, he is eager to get back to the business of being an 11-year-old--playing baseball and basketball.

“I think I can start on Monday,” he said.