Thousands of intricately folded paper cranes sit in classrooms at Tracy High School as a symbol of peace and remembrance for social studies teacher David Byrns, who died Jan. 16.

Byrns left his job at Tracy High in December after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and was given three to five months to live. The severity of his illness prompted nearly the entire Tracy High student body to fold origami cranes.

The idea came from Tracy High junior Asha Miles. During a recent trip to Japan, the 16-year-old heard of a little girl from Hiroshima who was diagnosed with leukemia nine years after she was caught in the fallout of the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. The girl folded cranes to please God so he would heal her, though, as the story goes, the girl died before she finished folding 1,000 cranes.

“The whole idea was to wish for peace for Mr. Byrns and show him that we cared,” Asha said.

Students spent both class time and free time to complete 1,300 cranes by Jan. 16, just after Byrns died.

“We were just 10 hours too late,” Asha said.

One-thousand paper cranes were boxed and shipped to Byrns hometown, Gouverneur, N.Y., to be displayed at the funeral and buried with Byrns.

“It was amazing what these kids did,” Byrns’ sister Donna Audycki said. “It tells us that these students are really being taught how to care.”

Byrns, 59, started at Tracy High 3½ years ago to teach government, economics and International Baccalaureate psychology. He was named Tracy High’s teacher of the year for 2005-06. Byrns was known on campus for his laugh and big cowboy boots.

“He was always himself,” said social studies teacher Michelle Robertson, who taught side-by-side with Byrns. “He always stuck to his opinions, his own voice and his own style.”

Byrns was fascinated with Japanese culture and enjoyed birds, said Vanessa Aguiler, a former student of Byrns and teachers’ assistant.

“He had a way of getting all the students involved in his life,” Vanessa said. “He talked to the whole class, but it felt like he was talking to you one-on-one.”

Tracy High senior Megan Wingo, who helped organize the crane-folding project, said she was amazed to see the student body pull together.

“There was just an outpouring of emotion,” she added. “It was a good way for everyone to deal with grief.”

Students wrote letters and folded several hundred more cranes to be displayed at Byrns’ memorial service at 6 p.m. Thursday at Emma Baumgardner Theater, 315 W. 11th St.

To contact reporter Danielle MacMurchy, call 830-4221 or e-mail danielle@tracypress.com.