CHANDLER--A 15-year-old musician fell dead in the choir-stand during morning worship services at a local church on Sunday.Roderick Battle, a sophomore at Chandler High School, had performed on the drums when he suddenly died as the worship services were underway at the Central Baptist Church.
Officials believe that the teenager was felled by a congenital heart disease, and said his mother died from the same disease at age 25.
A church member said the teen “had given a performance of a lifetime” and had received a standing ovation before he collapsed.
One of his relatives said Roderick Battle had in March visited a doctor, who monitored his heart condition.
The teen was told not to play sports and to continue taking prescribed medication, the relative said.
The relative said doctors had been monitoring the teen’s disease the last three years, after he had suddenly fainted.
His teachers at Chandler High said the youngster played drums in the school band, and he played golf.
“He wanted to be the next Tiger Woods,” Ty Rhoades, one of the teenager’s teachers, said.
“His zest for life was contagious,” another teacher, Tony Martinez, remarked, speaking about the dead 10th grade high school student.
Students at Chandler High are still “in shock,” Wayland Kimble, principal, said, and are receiving grief counseling to help them contend with their “overwhelming sense of sadness.”
Members of the Student Council are selling football homecoming T-shirts and “hoodies” for a fund they will give to the Battle family.
Members of the sophomore class and the Youths of Promise (a club to which Roderick Battle belonged and which works to help deprived children) are raising funds, too.
They will give the money they raise to a fund to provide floral arrangements for the teenager’s funeral services.
Chandler High will be planting a tree to honor the fallen youngster, the principal stated.
That planting will be near another tree that honors Aubrey Keelean, a student at Chandler High who died some time ago of meningitis.
“There simply are not enough Rodericks in the world,” Mr. Rhoades, one of the dead youngster’s teachers, commented.
“When you hear the thunder outside,” a note posted on the front door of the building of Chandler High says, “think of Roderick playing his drums.”
