'A really great day!': Cooper returns to school for first time since Highland Park shooting

With a mix of joy and heartbreak, 8-year-old Cooper Roberts recently returned to school for the first time since being paralyzed in the Highland Park July 4 parade shooting.

Cooper's parents, Jason and Keely, on Monday released the latest update on their son, who was wounded with dozens of others — including his mother and twin brother, Luke — in the shooting that also killed seven people.

Cooper still has a “slow and gradual” transition to school ahead of him due to daily therapy and evaluations, but his parents said Cooper “loved every minute” of his first day back as a third-grader at Braeside Elementary School in Highland Park.

“If I had not been shot, paralyzed, and had to be in a wheelchair, it would have been a perfect school day,” Cooper's parents quoted him as saying. “But it was a really great day! I loved it!”

While the return to school was a celebratory occasion for Cooper and his family, his parents noted the heartbreak of Cooper not being able to “play on the jungle gym, hang on the monkey bars, slide down the slide, swing on the swings, kick the ball” or even attend classes for a full day and be at school every day.

Still, his parents say the continued progress gives them hope as Cooper perseveres.

“Cooper continues to affirm for us that his spirit, his soul, his 'Cooperness' remains,” the parents wrote in a statement. “The hideous, evil act did not take that from him because he won't let it.”

A GoFundMe online fundraiser at gofundme.com/f/kxwjn-the-roberts-family-fundraiser has raised more than $2 million toward a $2.25 million goal to help pay for Cooper's medical care and future needs.

Whiskey River Bar and Grill, located at 1850 Waukegan Road in Glenview, is holding a fundraiser for the Roberts family from 1 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 16. Information about the event can be found at www.inspiredinsider.com/cooperevent.