Paralyzed teen achieves goal of walking across graduation stage to receive diploma

For weeks, Katarina Stankovich had practiced walking.

The 14-year-old — who was in a car accident when she was 4 years old, resulting in her having limited use of her legs as a paraplegic — was working hard so she could accept her diploma on stage at Toll Middle School

She wanted to walk across stage on her own two legs.

“I want it to be how everyone looked and kind of fit in with the graduating class,” she said last Friday, on her 14th birthday. “I’ve known everyone for years and years, but no one really knows I can walk in a different way. No one knows I can use braces. I just kind of wanted to have that big surprise.”

On most days, Katarina uses a wheelchair to get around. But in recent days, she has clocked 9 miles each day on a stationary bike at home as she’s worked to strengthen her muscles to walk across stage.

“I’ve been walking with my braces for a long time,” she said. “Preparing to walk out in front of everyone at my promotion, it’s exciting. I set a goal in my mind and practice every day.”

Although she may not have full use of her legs just yet, Katarina’s mom, Natasha Milatovich, said her daughter’s goal is to walk again.

“She’s a full-blown teenager — [a] very stubborn, strong-willed and goal-oriented kid,” said Milatovich, smiling. “We’re on the journey of her walking again. That’s the goal. And we will get there, absolutely.”

Even Katarina herself admitted, “I’m sassy.”

But she’s also not afraid of overcoming any physical challenges, and she readily tells stories about times she’s traveled to Big Bear to water ski or ride down the snowy slopes on a mono ski — and not just any slope.

She once went down the black diamond, to the surprise of her parents.

She’s also gone kayaking, and loves to swim. Her mom jokes that Katarina is known as the fittest one in their family.

One video on her mom’s cellphone shows Katarina using a lift at a hotel swimming pool to jump in, instead of being lowered slowly into the water.

Whenever kids dance onstage at Saint Sava Church in San Gabriel, Katarina is there, too, performing traditional Serbian song and dance in the traditional dress, in her wheelchair.

In March, when students from Toll’s eighth-grade class took a senior trip to New York City and Boston, Katarina was there as well, taking on the wet and icy streets with her wheels.

“Nothing stops us. This kid just keeps going,” Milatovich said.

When One Direction performed at the Rose Bowl last September, Katarina was there, too.

“I could have sworn — there was this one moment where Harry, he was just sitting on the side of the stage. I could have sworn he looked straight at me,” she said of one of the band’s heartthrobs.

In August, Katarina plans to attend Crescenta Valley High. She plans to continue studying French, and has her sights set on traveling to Europe.

“I want to see a lot of places,” she said. “There’s too many to name.”

But before taking on future dreams, she needed to walk across the stage to accept her diploma from Toll Middle School.

On Wednesday morning, when her name was called, Katarina did walk up a ramp, with two friends behind her, and received her diploma.

“It was pretty amazing. She did it,” her mother said after the promotion ceremony. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. It was incredible.”

“Everyone was clapping and cheering,” Katarina said. “It was really emotional for a lot of people.”