Cam Newton jumps fence to play football with seventh-graders

DAVIDSON, N.C. — Students at the Community School of Davidson had a celebrity encounter on the playground Friday afternoon.

Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was driving by the school while filming for a show when he noticed a student wearing his jersey on the playground, Channel 9 first reported Saturday morning.

Mimi Siadak, a seventh-grade teacher, said Newton asked the teachers for permission and then hopped the fence to toss a football.

“The students just herded all around him. I still can’t believe he did that,” Siadak said.

Newton also posed for a “dabbing” photo with the awestruck students and got the group to heckle one of their teachers wearing a Steelers lanyard.

“I saw one girl crying and hyperventilating and when I asked, ‘Honey what’s wrong?’ she said, ‘That was just the best moment of my life,’” Siadak said.

Siadak said it took some time to redirect her students’ attention toward class after the surprise visit.

“The kids were having the hardest time coming down, and I was having the hardest time too, because I was so excited,” Siadak said.

Kathleen McMillan, another seventh-grade teacher, gave her lesson on figurative language a Cam Newton theme to ease the kids back into class.

To explain personification, one student wrote, “The football grinned with joy when Cam picked it up.”

Another student came up with the alliteration, “Cam came cuz cats are cool.”

Students also wrote notes to Newton to thank him for the visit that one student said, “provided so much adrenaline and excitement into our school.”

Another student wrote, “I am in a hard place in my life, because my parents are getting divorced. But to me you are now a symbol of hope and that even when things go bad there is always happiness.”

Another seventh-grader wanted to make sure Newton felt like he could join playground football whenever he wanted.

“Feel free to come back at any time. You are always welcome! Keep pounding,” she wrote.

Siadak said the seventh-graders will never forget the experience.

“Overall, the energy of the kids when they came back in, they were just star struck. I mean you have to imagine that is one of their, a lot of them, that is their role model,” Siadak said.

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