Mom hoping tragedy 'will open some eyes'

CLOVIS — When Dakota Revell started at Bella Vista Elementary School in 2007, she announced she might just skip kindergarten and go on to first grade.

And that's exactly what happened after school officials got to know her.

"They said she was really, really smart and we moved her on to first grade," said her mother, Veronica Revell. "She's always been ambitious and if she's wanted to do something, she will do it."

Dakota's a sophomore at Clovis High School today. At 14, she's younger than most of her classmates. And she's still smart - 4.2 grade-point average, her mother said - and she's still ambitious, already earning varsity cheerleader status.

But she's not invincible.

Veronica Revell said she received a call about 10:30 on Wednesday morning that Dakota had been involved in an accident. She'd fallen off of a moving automobile, "car surfing" in the school parking lot.

"EMS was already there when I got there," Veronica said. "(Dakota) was fighting, she was moaning. I saw blood coming out of her ear and that's when I knew something was really not right."

Dakota spent the rest of Christmas week fighting for her life.

Her chances for recovery are good, her mother believes, but on Monday she remained in intensive care in a Lubbock hospital, unconscious, with severe head trauma.

"We won't know the extent of what she's capable of doing until she wakes up," Veronica said in a telephone interview.

"They are concerned with her speech, language, speech recognition ... But her doctors have said, 'You'd be surprised. She's healthy, young, strong. She can come out of it pretty darn good.'"

Family can be with her, but doctors don't want her brain to be stimulated until she's stronger.

Veronica said she's been warned to expect months or even a year of rehabilitation ahead, and that could be an optimistic scenario. "Until she wakes up, we just can't know," she said.

Here's what she does know:

She wants the students at Clovis High School and elsewhere to stop car surfing.

"I'm hoping her story and this accident will open some eyes and show kids that even though this might look kinda fun and cool, it's not. It's not at all. My daughter ... I don't know what her future holds. I hope kids will make smarter choices."

A Washington Post newspaper report in October showed at least seven young people have been killed car surfing - standing or sitting on top of moving cars - in 2016; at least two of those fatalities happened in New Mexico.

Veronica said she's not exactly sure how Dakota was hurt, but she said Clovis police have a video of the incident and she hopes Dakota's tragedy can prevent others.

Another thing Veronica Revell wants the community to know:

She's not blaming anyone.

"We've forgiven all of those involved," she said. "The young lady who was driving, she has been here to see (Dakota); her mom has been here to see me. I told her, 'I'm not angry with you.' She shouldn't have been driving like that, but Dakota shouldn't have been on the back of her car either."

The mission now, for everyone who cares about Dakota, is to focus on her recovery.

"Right now it's just prayers that we need," Veronica said. "I don't care what religion you are, we just want your prayers. And we have received a tremendous amount of people praying for her.

"Please let people know how grateful we are for the love, support and prayers."

David Stevens is editor for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]