Every parents worse nightmare - Kaylah Lentine killed by pick up truck on her way to school

To contact us Click HERE
Kaylah was supposed to be presented with a leadership award during a school assembly in the morning, and when her name was called out, everybody waited, wondering where she was, attendees said.


As Kaylah Lentine fought for her life Friday one day after being hit by a pickup truck on her way to school, students at Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School worked during the school day to show the eighth-grader how much they were thinking about her.

Everybody signed her yearbook and made posters, Principal Paul Enderle said. Some students wore yellow shirts and blue jeans to school, knowing she would have liked that style.

“We really thought there was a chance,” Enderle said.

But Kaylah, 14, of the 4500 block of West 88th Street in Hometown, was pronounced dead at 3:26 p.m. Friday at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. She had been taken to the hospital in critical condition Thursday after being struck by a pickup truck about 8 a.m. while crossing Southwest Highway west of Cicero Avenue in Oak Lawn, officials said.

Late Friday night, seventh-grade girls from the school were tying yellow ribbons to a lightpole on one of the corners at the intersection. Kaylah’s mother, Krista Wilkinson, came by to say the family was grateful for all the kind gestures, visitors to the home and postings on a Facebook tribute page.

“We appreciate all the kind words,” Wilkinson said.

CLICK FOR THE FULL NEWS STORY