Stokes Elementary School

A school gymnasium in Rome will soon carry the name of a former student remembered for her courage, compassion, and lasting impact on her community.

The Rome City School District Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to name the Stokes Elementary School Gymnasium in honor of Ayla Charmé Griffiths.

The new name will officially take effect July 1st, 2027.

Griffiths, affectionately known as A, attended Stokes Elementary and later Rome Free Academy.

In August 2007, she was diagnosed with primary refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma.

She continued facing the disease while pursuing her education and was an honor student and junior at Rome Free Academy when she died in February 2010 at the age of 16.

And someday, Maxim hopes to bring her own children into the school and have them see Isla's name on the wall.

When they ask who she was, Maxim wants to tell them about a girl who once walked those same halls, someone who faced circumstances no child should have to face, but refused to let cancer define who she was.