(May 27, 2009)

PETTUS--Getting one child to attend school every day for one school year is tough, but how about doing it with five kids for all 13 years of school. We discovered a family in the small Bee County town of Pettus that's done exactly that.

Pettus High School will hold a graduation ceremony on Friday. Sammie Constante will be the latest in her family to graduate without missing a day of school in 13 years. Classmates look up to her for this honor.

"They say how do you do it and you're crazy," said Sammie Constante. "I wish I could have done it. Just little things like that, but in the end they say they are proud of me."

Sammie is following her three brothers and sister who did the same thing. Her key to success is to do whatever she could to avoid getting sick.

"I just had to come home, take the medicine and get plenty of bed rest and do my homework if I had anything,"  Sammie said.

Sammie never really got sick other than a case of bronchitis, but she did have some close calls.

"I was able to take her to the doctor afterschool so she wasn't able to miss school and like her braces I would take her on Saturday," said Patricia Constante, Sammie's mother. 

Mom and Dad did their part with the five children, feeding them a good breakfast every morning. They made sure the kids would go to school unless they were dying.

"That's one thing they weren't going to get away with," Patricia Constante said. "They're all different, but they knew we better go."

They have one more child, James Constante, a tenth grader. He once tore a tendon in his finger but didn't miss school. He also broke his collarbone twice playing football, but he still made it to class.

"No because I already my parents will be there pushing me to go to school and never let me miss," said James Constante.  

His mother said she'll make sure he keeps going to school.

"You better not miss. You better not miss. It's just a family thing,," said Patricia Constante.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com