Teacher guides students through the toughest woodworking project — a classmate's coffin

Published: March 14, 2020, 5 p.m.

This story originally aired on January 19, 2019. In the basement of Franklin High School in South Seattle there is a sprawling room full of lathes, band saws and sanding equipment. In one of the room’s closets, tree stumps wait to be turned into polished bowls, guitar stands and bookcases. Before he was gunned down last year on June 2 in Martha Washington Park, 17-year-old Ryan Dela Cruz made things in this wood shop.